


Act Three: Hoenn: Return of the Hollow Knights

by MinawaKitten



Series: Soul [4]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Fantasy based AU, Gen, repost/new/old work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:00:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 32,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27484660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinawaKitten/pseuds/MinawaKitten
Summary: The time many children wait for has finally arrives for Sally Banks. With a smile on her face she heads off on an adventure though Hoenn with no ideal goal with her best friend. As chaos rises through out the land Khris Birch, the stepson of Professor Birch, carries out his research for his father.Together, the two meet two men who are determined to rise the land and sea to create their perfect world, regardless of the consequences.
Relationships: OC/OC
Series: Soul [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2008375





	1. Chapter 1

“I dunno,” the young girl sighs, swinging her legs lazily as she rests on her stomach. “Maybe both?”

“Both?” the boy repeats, “That will be a lot more work on your part to participate in contests and gym battles.”

“I don't care. . .” the girl whines rolling on the carpet. The boy rolls his eyes at the spectacle before returning to his paperwork. "If I get to go on an adventure with my best friend I'll be fine. . ." The girl drags out her vowels. He gives his friend a look as she tugs at his pants leg.

"You know I'm leaving to help dad with his research." His friend loudly whines back. What an intelligent response. The girl continues to whine and moan until her friend reaches an agreement with her. "I suppose. I can't stay the whole time though. . ." The girl lets out an exuberant cheer, swinging her leg in the air. Her leg hits the nearby desk. She curls up in a ball and lays there in pain.

The boy is concerned but not enough to ask how she's doing. He knows better, she'll be up when her show comes back on.

"Breaking news."

Well that got his attention. He leans back in his chair ever so slightly so he can see the television screen. The reporter is going off saying odd things about how some people became pokemon and are duking it out with others.

It's like some bad anime.

But of course she's enthralled. Magical shoujo powers, or something, fly across the stadium and beautiful girls clad in kimonos dance to a soothing melody. The boy sighs and returns to his work.

"That was so cool!" The girl suddenly yells. It seems that weird anime is over now. . . He can't help but wonder what the ratings are to get such a huge budget to do something like that. "They were like. . . superheroes! So strong and sooo cool!!"

"Right. Heroes. . ."

"What's with that reaction? They were so cool Khris!"

"It was all CGI. . ." The girl gasps, as if she was offended.

"There's no way that was CGI!"

"Oh com-" Before a full on argument a voice from the floor below called out to the two children.

"Sally! Khris! It's time for lunch!" The young lady jumps to her feet and rushes off, her hunger getting the best of her. Khris finishes jotting down information on his paper before setting the pencil down and joining his friend and her mother downstairs.

* * *

Within a year time the region of Johto has cleaned itself up and repaired much of the damage caused by Team Rocket in their attempt to overtake the region. A variety of things were rebuilt, which reinforced its overall appearance of old and new. As for Soul Chamber, with their public appearance at the Pokemon League tournament there was a massive increase in support and donations so they could carry out their work. A few companies have taken an interest in the group and produced various pieces of merchandise. The only reason their leader has not ordered a cease and desist is because a good portion of the money comes to the group as well.

Speaking of Soul Chamber, the group returned to their castle in the sky to keep a close eye on various happenings across the various regions of this world. For now, all was silent but they knew it would not last long. In the region known as Hoenn, a young lady and her friend were preparing for their own adventure across this region. Our setting takes place in a small town known as Littleroot.

Morning light peaks in through purple blinds, hitting young Sally Banks in the eye. The girl winces, arching against her bedsheets and stretching her arms above her head where they clank against her bed's headboard. Wincing, Sally rubs her wrist. Once it finally registers to her that she's awake, Sally makes the move to get out of her bed, only to get tangled up in the sheets and fall flat on her face. Sally continues on despite that. She shimmies out of her sheets and rushes to her closet for her prepared outfit of choice.

She steps out of her closet dressed in a purple tank top, a thin white a line skirt over an aqua green tube skirt and black shorts. The girl takes a seat at the foot of her closet, pulling on a pair of white knee length socks and aqua green sneakers. Sally glances around her room. It would be quite some time until she would see this place again. Her eyes move to her collection of Soul Chamber figures. She was going to miss these guys. . . Maybe when she gets a secret base she could move them there. Oh but the search for a perfect secret base was so hard.

Sally sighs loudly. She takes a moment to adjust her Raikou figure and makes her way to the door. She pulls her vest off the waiting hook, pulling it on before collecting her hat and bag. She salutes to the figures one more time on her way out. Sally clomps downstairs to greet her mother and brother a good morning. Flopping into her chair she scarfs down her breakfast and then stands stretching once again to fully wake herself up for this big day. Today she was going to embark on her pokemon adventure and her mother was already in tears.

"Do you really have to go?" her younger brother whined.

"I promise I'll come and visit often," Sally reassures him.

Her mother wiped a tear from her eye. "Oh Arceus," she sniffled, "You've grown up so fast! I remember when you were just a little girl, dressed in so many cute frilly dresses and ribbons!! Now look at you!" Her mother motions to what she's dressing. Sally raises a brow and inspects for herself. Yep. Just a tank top, skirt and vest. Her mom is crazy. Not like Khris' although. That's a new level of- Sally's thoughts are cut short when her mother grabs in her a vice like grip, removing all the air in her lungs in one go. The mother breaks into a river of tears and wails loudly. "My daughter is all grown up and off to fight trainers!"

"It's okay Mom," Sally wheezes, "I'm Dad's daughter and I'm gonna be the best trainer ever!"

Her mother continued to cry anyway hugging her tighter and kissing her before finally letting Sally go to which she responded by gasping for air. Sally makes this her moment to escape, with a final farewell she rushes out of the front door of her humble home. Once she's outside she wastes no time rushing over to Khris' house. she barges in with such speed and strength the door hits the wall. Khris' mother is unaffected although. The woman is off in her world once more but it's not the same for her beloved Mightyana, who gives her a nasty look and a growl. The growl seems to awaken the woman. She looks over to Sally.

"Oh, Sally," the woman says, still a little dazed despite being supposedly woken up for the moment, "Khris isn't here at the moment but he said he'd be back soon.."

Sally nods a quick "Ok" and then dashes up to Khris' room regardless. Khris' room is far more organized and neater than Sally's. His desk is perfectly clean and anything sitting on the desktop is put away in its proper space. All his books are even placed on the bookshelf in alphabetical and numerical order. The clothes in his dresser and closet are all neatly put away, even his underwear. Hahaha. Nerd.

There was a single pokeball resting on the pillow on Khris' bed although. Sally jumps onto the bed with a not so graceful belly flop causing the pokeball to fly into the air and hit the top of her head. With a click, a mudkip is released from the capture device. The mudfish pokemon stares at her with beady black eyes and Sally stares in return. Was this even real. . .?

"Sally? Mom said you were he-- FRICK" Khris announces only to trip over his shoelaces a second later, falling flat on his face.

"Amazing entrance," Sally laughed, "You should really get new shoes!"

Khris just grumbled and threw on his other boots. Once he was back on his feet Khris began to calmly get his bag together.

"So," Sally says as Khris returns the Mudkip into its pokeball, "Where the heckie is your dad?"

Khris pauses for a moment and then shrugs unsure himself.

Anyway, once Khris was ready the two clomped down the stairs and Khris' mom was soon hugging him and crying while Sally watched from the side.

"You grew up so fast Khrisy!" his mother bawled.

"Mom, don't call me Khrisy," Khris choked but his mother paid no heed. She continued to gush and adore over her son while holding him in her arms and spinning on one foot. For a housewife she was pretty damn strong. Sally snickered regardless. Ahaha Khrisy. Her best friend is such a nerd. Once Khris breaks away from his mother he grabs Sally and makes a dash for the door. The two make a run for the only exit out of the town, passing citizens as they go.

As they enter Route 101 they find the professor in a short tree, clinging to a branch as if his life depended on it. Which it didn't because he was being harassed by a Zigzagoon and a Poochyena. Honestly, it looked very dumb, a grown man shaking in a tree to get away from tiny pokemon. The two preteens stare in mild amazement and horror.

Sally shakes her head and lets out Maribelle, her beloved Skitty. The cat like pokemon happily mewles before it jumps on the Poochyena's backside. The bite pokemon snarls in response to the attack. Poochyena runs in circles trying to shake Maribelle off before deciding to ram into the tree the professor is clinging to for dear life. The tree shakes causing leaves to fall and the professor lets out an undignified yelp. Maribelle is unmoving although. Defeated so quickly.

Khris gives his friend a deadpan look and then sends out his Mudkip, Maya. While Khris commands Maya through the current battle, Sally scrambles about looking for a stick or something she can use to help. Though the most she finds is nearly tripping over a briefcase that the professor must have left in the tall grass in his haste to flee. Upon opening it Sally found a single pokeball. She grabs it and releases the contained pokemon which turns out to be a Treecko.

"Treecko, tackle that Poochyena!" Sally commanded. The Treecko turned away and spit on the ground. It seemed to be rather unamaused that someone was bossing it around. "C'mon just help me out here, please!" Sally pleaded.

The Treecko let out a sly "Ko" as if to say "Nah". However after observing the battle itself it dashed ahead simply for the spirit of the fight. Treecko unleashes a Bullet Seed hell upon the Zigzagoon and Poochyena (and partially upon Mudkip as well) and the rowdy pokemon are soon knocked unconscious. Treecko stands tall and proud on the two pokemon with its arms crossed and a twig in its mouth. The professor carefully climbed down from the tree, or at least he tried.

He fell halfway and landed on his back groaning. Khris and Sally sigh and then help him back to his feet.

"Thanks kids, I was sure I was gonna be a goner there!" The professor said, dusting himself off. "We should head back to town before anything else scary happens."

"Poochyenas and Zigzagoons aren't scary," Sally commented.

"They are when they're chasing you and want to eat you alive!" The professor argued.

"How did you even provoke them enough to do that?" Sally squints.

"That's, that is not important," The professor stuttered. Khris shook his head once more. The group reenters the town and heads over to the professor's lab. The man's assistant seems to be relieved that his boss is okay and doing well but the look on his face when he learned the professor was nearly 'killed' by a Poochyena and Zigzagoon was incredible. The man just throws his arms in the air and heads to the depths of the lab. Professor Birch awkwardly coughs.

"Anyway, the day has finally come where you two will leave this humble town and explore what this region has to offer." The professor walks over to a window to gaze out it with a melancholic smile. "I'm going to miss the two of you but you're responsible children so I know you'll be safe out there. But. . ." The man pauses to reach into his lab coat and pulls out two red devices. "I'd like you to have these. I got them from a colleague in Kanto. These are Pokedexs. They're useful devices that supply and record information about pokemon. I'm sure it will help you on your journey Sally," He hands one to the girl and then the other to his own son. "Khris, I have a feeling you'll want to completely fill this out but don't overwork yourself." The two pre-teens thank the adult for his kindness and gaze upon the device in wonder.

"Ah, yes, before I forget," Professor Birch motions to the Treeko, who is off brooding in a corner. "Sally, this is my remaining starter pokemon, I'll entrust him to you. He's a bit rough around the edges but he's a good pokemon." Sally breaks out into a full grin and scoops the pokemon into her arms, much to its horror.

"Oh cool! He's so neat! I'll name him Ken-" The pokemon's tail hits her in the face but she continues no less. "-shin." Now she was more pumped up than ever, Sally takes the wrist of her new pokemon and bursts out of the lab's doors. Khris makes one final wave to his father and follows after his friend, who was now carrying Kenshin above her head with a triumphant yell of joy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aw shit its me again
> 
> copy pasted from act two 
> 
> Yeah so I asked the site whats the best thing to do when you're a damn fool and accidentally add someone as a co-creator to a story, someone who doesnt even uses the site any more no less, and they said the best thing to do is to delete it all and repost it, and WELP here i am; heres all this hot content with some edits and adjustments as i cry over 7 year old writing from my past


	2. Chapter 2

Thus begins the journey of Sally and Khris, the two preteens safely arrive at Oldale Town with no troubles. Once they take a stop at the PokeMart Khris hands his friend a checkbook and explains to her that she should start using it because he will not always be around to pay for her and she needs to keep track of her money. A trainer without money is a dead man.

Khris chooses to pick up potions and pokeballs. Sally chooses nothing. Khris gives her a look. He knows she’s trying to save all the money she can to buy more of those figures and shit. How the hell does she live with herself buying all those things. They aren’t even action figures. Either way Khris paid for what he wanted and the duo left town for Route 102 together.

The duo didn’t make it far into the grass. Some kid sprang out of the grass, landing in front of Sally and getting into her face. She screamed.

"Come on! TIME FOR A BATT-" Sally punches the trainer right in his face. Khris looks completely horrified as the kid sinks back into the grass. After a couple minutes of awkward silence the kid rises from the grass with a bloody nose and a pokeball in hand.

"As I was saying, time for a battle!" Jesus that kid was a trooper.

Despite the rough start, the battle began. Amazing. The trainer sent out his Seedot which stood proudly in front of its trainer. Sally sent out Maribelle who hyperly paced back and forth with anticipation. This time it was ready to destroy the enemy. The last battle was an accident. Sally commanded Maribelle to tackle the Seedot and it did so within the second smashing into the acorn pokemon and dancing around on its head. The Seedot squirmed and rolled trying to get the kitten off of it but to little to no avail.

"Seedot, use bullet seed!" the trainer called. Seedot stopped rolling at a center angle as seeds shot out from its mouth..? Sally always wondered if they even had mouths, but she shook the thought quickly as she realized Maribelle took the brunt of the attack and was on the ground staggering somewhat before shaking off the attack. Meanwhile Seedot got back on its feet and was jumping from foot to foot anticipating Maribelle’s next move.

"Use Iron Tail!" Sally called. Maribelles tail lit up as she charged the Seedot and slammed it in the face with her hardened tail. The Seedot went flying across the ground and smashed into a tree completely knocked out. The trainer was defeated. Maribelle did a victory backflip.

"Gooooal!" Sally yells, lifting her arms into the air. Khris just looks so embarrassed to even be associated with her right now. As the trainer mourns his loss in battle Khris drags Sally off, who’s still doing a little victory dance as she’s taken away. The girl soon enough pulls herself together and makes haste to her father’s gym. She runs right into the wooden doors. Slowly, if not a bit comically, she slides downwards until she reaches the dirt road.

"Pain and regret," She mutters.

Once Sally jumps back to her feet with such grace and dexterity she opens the door properly and rushes in. Inside the calm dojo like gym Norman, the leader and her father, is speaking to a pale child with green hair. Sally seems not to care for the fact that her father was talking to the boy. She opens her arms and takes off running.

"DAAAAAD" Sally yells in excitement as she runs.

Norman turns and yells “SAAAAAAAAALLLLYYYYY” and starts running twords her. Once more, Khris is embarrassed to exist. The two are practically having one of those slow motion reunion hugs he would catch on Sally’s TV shows. But knowing them it did not last long. The hug quickly shifts into an all out wrestling match which Norman quickly ends by suplexing his own daughter in front of her friend and the pale boy. Norman straightens up, as if he did not flip his child over and smashed her into the hard wood floor.”Khris, Sally,” he gestures to a green haired boy who’s gawking over the fact that this man just suplexed his kid. ”this is Wally,” Sally raises her arm to weakly wave at the boy. “Wally is going to Verdanturf Town and he would like a pokemon to go with him and keep him company. I’m swamped here at the gym at the moment so can you help him out Sally?” Sally gives her father a thumbs up and pulls her face up off the ground.

"Sure thing dad." Sally’s face hit the ground once more with a dull thud. Slowly, she drags herself out of the Gym and back out into the streets of Petalburg. Norman just watched with a smile. Yep. His daughter has a good head on her shoulders.

And so, after pulling herself together the little trio makes way to Route 102. Sally and Wally enter the waist high grass and begin the careful search for a pokemon as Khris remains off to the side doing some research on the pokemon in the area.

"So, Wally," Sally said, "The first step to catching pokemon is having a pokemon to begin with, so for this excercise I’m going to lend you Maribelle!"

Sally handed the green haired boy a pokeball and he released Maribelle who eagerly scampered around their feet with a gleeful mewl. Sally lifts the pokemon up and places it in Wally’s arm. 

"Step one, check," Sally drew a check in the air with a confident smile. Khris groaned. "Now we gotta find us a pokemon!" The two boldly enter the grass, leaving Khris to observe wild pokemon in peace. They could find quite a few pokemon in the grass but none of them seemed to capture Wally’s attention. They were cute for sure but none seemed like a perfect companion to give him company.

* * *

Wally was about to give up and ask Sally to take him home when it appeared. A timid looking Ralts. Wally’s eyes sparkled and grew wide.

"I want that one!" He blurts out loudly. The pokemon squeaks, startled, and made a run for it but that wouldn’t stop Sally. Fire burned in her eyes with serious determination. She rips Kenshin off her head, pulling strands of purple hair out of her head and losing her hat in the process, winds up her arm and tosses the Treeko in the direction of the Ralts. Kenshin is not amused at all, he just glares at Sally with crossed arms as he flies right at the Ralts. He lands on top of the feeling pokemon, crushing it. 

Kenshin stands up reluctantly and with a clearly annoyed look on its face. Sally turns to Wally with a grin.

"Alright let Maribelle down!" Wally jumps a little at the enthusiasm in her voice but complies with her demand. The kitten pokemon looks pleased to participate in a fight. She happily bounds over to Kenshin’s side, wagging her tail about. "Now the key to catching a pokemon is to weaken it first!"

"Weaken it?" Wally repeats dumbly. Sally gives him a look with her lips pressed together in a tight line. Wow. This kid really knew nothing. She was starting to think her dad gave her this job just because he didn’t want to get frustrated with him.

"You know," Sally motions to the pokemon, awaiting commands, "In order to catch a pokemon you first have to battle it."

"But I don’t want to hurt it!" Wally protested.

"That comes with being a trainer." she sighs. "You know you can always heal them and stuff. It’s fine." Wally gives her some pathetic pleading face in search of an alternative to capturing pokemon. Sally sighs. "You can… I dunno, try to talk to it?" He could but after Kenshin jumping on it there’s no idea how much it will want to hear from him. Regardless, Wally nodded and walked over to the Ralts, crouching down next to it. Kenshin made a face at the boy as it approached. What a loser. 

"Uh, I guess I should start with an apology," Wally pulls the feeling pokemon out from under Kenshin, making the grass pokemon flip and fall on its face. "Oh, uh, sorry Kenshin." Wally returns to the feeling pokemon that looks oddly calm. "Okay, second, my name is Wally Reeds." Wally rises to his feet, standing tall he motions to Petalburg. "That is Petalburg City, I was born and raised there, but tomorrow, I’ll be moving far away." He lets out a cough that rattles his body. The pokemon shows concern, he smiles a little as he shakes his head. "Don’t worry, It’s just a small cough. You see, growing up here was hard. The air… isn’t that clean and I’m sensitive to things like that so my parents kept me locked in the house for my safety but it was so… lonely. I didn’t want to move away and have to deal with that loneliness again. So I-I thought maybe if I had a pokemon it would be okay." With a smile Wally raises the Ralts above his head.

"So, how about it? Do you want to be my friend? I’ll take care of you and everything! You’ll get a nice house and bed to sleep in with fresh food for you everyday! We can even play games! And maybe, when I’m strong enough we can go on our own adventure! So, how about it?"

The Ralts hesitated at first, but then smiled and let out a cry of glee. Wally’s faced lit up as he pulled Ralts in for a hug. Sally proceeds to ruin the moment by bonking the Ralts on its head with a pokeball while loudly muttering; boop. The pokemon is sucked into the pokeball with a red beam of light. The capture device falls from Sally’s hand and to the grass below. It wiggles once, twice and a third time before clicking in confirmation that the capture was complete.

Wally leans down to gather up his new friend, Sally yells woohoo to no one in particular and throws her arms in the air. She hits Wally right in the face. He drops the pokeball, falling to the ground and grabs his throbbing nose.

Sally simply stares at him.

"Why are you on the floor?" she asks completely unaware it’s her fault. She shakes her head. "Anyway, after weakening a pokemon you capture it with a pokeball!" Sally then proceeds to talk about the different types of pokeballs and Khris decides to save Wally from his friend. He walks the sickly boy back home. Wally dosen’t really mind it, he simply smiles at the pokeball he cradles in his pale hands. He carefully shifts the pokeball in his hands so he can look down at his small friend though the transparent red top of the pokeball. Wally smiles one more, thanking Khris and Sally for their help.

When Sally realizes she was left behind she makes haste back into town, carrying her two pokemon under her arm. Kenshin was beyond annoyed at this girl but Maribelle didn’t seem to mind it at all, in fact she was wagging her tail. Sally bursts though the doors of her father’s Gym, making the doors hit the wall with a clattering bang. A gym leader aid sighed, motioning down the halls. Sally runs down the hall to find her father, only to slip. She keeps her pokemon in the air as she tumbles down the hall and with luck she skids to a stop at an open door leading to the open air path and gym’s zen garden, her face basically glued to the wooden floor.

Sally remains still on the floor when her father decides to glance over his shoulder from his seat on the wooden floorboards. The adult shifts his body to face his child.

"Sally, you helped Wally out, right?" Sally weakly nods. On her confirmations he slaps her back. Sally writhes in pain. "Atta girl!" Norman grins no less. "You’re off on your journey, I bet you still don’t know what to do." Sally nods. He laughs, rubbing her shoulder. "Do as you want dear, but remember to have fun and make friends! That’s what a journey is about!" Sally finally rises. She crawls to her father on her knees and hugs his shoulders tightly. Norman smiles, somewhat pained.

Sally stretches upon her exit from her fathers gym. She cracks her back in an exaggerated and dramatic way before she notices the truck parked in front of a house. 

…

Oh. That must be Wally’s. She had no idea he would be moving that quickly. 

Sally quickly scampers over to the house and truck to see Wally off. Why not? He’s a good kid.

She crashes right into Khris with her hips, throwing him into the dirt. Wally smiles awkwardly and he waves goodbye as the engine turns on. The sickly young man keeps waving until his arm grows tired. Once Khris stands up he pushes his glasses into place with an annoyed sigh. He’s about to speak until Sally beats him to the punch.

"We should of hitched a ride." Khris sighs once more. For a moment he thought she was going to say something insightful.

"Come along. We have some ground to cover to make it to Slateport." Sally makes a razzberry in response. Khris grimaces. The two don’t make it far out of the town when they’re approached by a round adult grinning cheekily dressed in a blue shirt with white floral printing and cargo shorts.

"Excuse me! Let me guess, from the way you’re dressed, are you a Pokémon Trainer?" Sally grins.

"But of course I am! Just look at how I’m dressed!" The man then begins to closely examine Sally with furrowed brows. He decides to wave her off with a sigh.

"Well, maybe not. Your clothes aren’t all that dirty. You’re either a rookie Trainer, or maybe you’re just an ordinary kid." The look of offense on Sally’s face was almost hilarious to Khris. "I’m roaming the land in search of talented Trainers. I’m sorry to have taken your time." The man walks off and Sally proceeds to angrily flip around.

"How dare he!!! I am so a trainer!! And I’m no rookie!!!" 

"Says the girl without a badge or ribbon to her name." Khris snorts pushing ahead. Sally pouts, crossing her arms and tailing behind Khris.

The two push ahead down the following route. On Sally’s insistence they took the path down the beach. Sally’s anger was quickly replaced with glee as she ran down the sandy shore with her arms in the air, as if she was an airplane.

She suddenly comes to a stop, planting her hands on her hips. Sally grins, turning to Khris. The light of the setting sun reflects on her hair and the salty wind plays with loose strands of purple. Khris hastily pushes up his glasses as his friend smiles.

"We should go for a swim!!" And without waiting for a proper response Sally begins to pull off her clothes.

"PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON!!!"


	3. Chapter 3

Sally pushes a low branch out of her way to continue on. She completely blanks, forgetting Khris was following her, lets go of the branch letting it spring back and smack Khris in the face. The boy falls to the ground wincing, clutching his face. Sally still fails to realize this and pushes forward. The young lady looks at the various bug pokemon crawling around. Sally shakes her head with a heavy sigh.

"No, nothing here seems to be good for contests. . ." Maribelle mewls in response. Sally smiles, leaning down to pet her best friend when an adult male in a finely pressed green suit jumps through the branches and into her arms. "Er. . . Hi?"

"SAVE ME!!!"

"Oh," Sally responds. How wonderful. He better not be getting chased by a horde of Wurmples or she’s going to lose all her faith in adults. Grown men being chased and scared of tiny po-

"I FOUND YOU!!" And another adult bursts from the shrubbery. This man is rather muscular and. . . dressed like a pirate? Either way he has a knife in hand and he is not a pokemon. The adult in her arms screams once more. Sally gives him a look before dropping him on his ass.

"Don’t give me that look," Sally huffs when the adult gives her an utterly pathetic look. "You’re a grown man and heavy as heck!" She faces the pirate man with an annoyed look. "And who the heck are you?"

"Are ye a fool?! I am a proud member of Team Aqua."

"You talk funny." What a tactical response.

"Watch ye mouth ye wrench!" The pirate snarls. He points his knife to the man in a suit. "You!"

"Yes?" The man whimpers, trying to hide behind Sally.

"What’s your name?"

"Y-Yuu. . ."

"Not me! You!"

"Y-yes. I am Yuu." The pirate squints his eyes.

"You think this is a game? What is your damn name?!"

"I’ve already told you. . .!" Okay. That was enough for Sally. She punches the pirate like man in the face, making him drop his knife in surprise. After collecting the knife she punches Yuu on top of his head.

"I’m kicking all of your asses now!" She barks pointing to the pirate. "Yours!" She then points to Yuu. "His! Everyone’s!" And so she does, she throw’s Kenshin’s pokeball right at the Team Aqua grunt, who lets out a Poochyena in response. Kenshin makes quick work of it as if it is nothing. The grunt looks to Sally and her rather annoyed pokemon and back to his fainted one, who lays on the floor in a crumpled heap. He takes his pokemon and quickly absconds. Sally sighs, muttering about how this was completely crazy but then Yuu dumps a copious amount of Great Balls into her arms before running off.

Khris finally appears with his face covered in scratches. He sighs heavily.

"What happened here."

"I don’t even know man. There was a pirate and some wussy adult."

"Ah." That’s all he really had to say on the subject but to be fair that sounded like a really shitty story Sally made up on the spot. Still, thankfully, after that fiasco the duo did not encounter any more danger and exit the forest in one piece. The sun had set long ago to let the moon and stars twinkle in the sky. Pokemon and people have gone to bed for the night. Rustboro was still some distance away though, there was no way they would reach it at this hour. They would have to camp for the night. . .

There was suddenly a jingle of bells and a ray of light that hit the two trainers. Khris was the first to look at the source despite the sudden light. At the doorway to a small flower shop not far off was a woman. She smiles.

"Would you two like to stay the night? It’s quite a walk to Rustboro at this hour. And a bed would be nicer than a sleeping bag, right?" Sally lets out a loud yes only to have the top of her head punched by Khris. The boy pushes his glasses in place.

"Yes, we would be delighted to spend a night at your humble abode ma’am." The woman giggles opening the door wider to invite the two in.

"There’s no need to be so formal. This house is always open to young trainers." Once inside the two pre-teens are greeted with the sight of flowers everywhere of various hues and scents.

Flower pots sat on table tops to display their goods. There were even pots on display in glass cabinets with all sorts of tools and equipment. With a smile the woman leads the way to a doorway to the back of the shop.

She pulls the curtain aside for the two. Khris bows his head to the woman, who smiles back and Sally rushes ahead without much thought. Thankfully she recognizes a genkan when she sees one. Sally plops down on the wooden floor to remove her sneakers and socks. She carefully stows them away before she walks on the carpet.

"My, what polite and intelligent children." The woman coos. "Not many know what a genkan is any more. Well, I should introduce myself. I am Franny. I run the little flower shop in the front with my sister-in-law and a young man I recently hired." Franny steps onto the white carpet. With a smile she motions down the hall to her left. "Down that way is the living room and a couple of spare rooms. I’ll have breakfast ready in the morning, my cooking is best while it’s fresh so don’t sleep in too long!" Franny wishes the two goodnight and heads down the other hall. Khris wishes Sally a goodnight as well and heads to a spare room.

As one would expect Sally heads to the living room instead. She takes a seat on the fluffy white carpet in front of a low wood table. Sally opens her bag to retrieve a spiral notebook and pen. She turns to a clean page before releasing her pokemon from her pokeballs.

Kenshin gives her a dirty look as usual but Sally ignores it and crosses her arms. She gives her two pokemon an intense look, examining them both over. Mirabelle seems not to notice or care seeing how she chooses to roll and rub her face against the carpet. Sally sighs happily. She scoops the kitten pokemon into her arms and nuzzles the cat.

"Aaaah! You’re so cute! You’ll blow any competition out of the water in Cute Contests!" She glances to Kenshin with puffed cheeks. "And if Kenshin could keep it together we can enter him in Cool Contests!" He hits her in the face with his tail. Sally winces.

"Yeah, well, whatever," She huffs. "We still need three more pokemon for contests. Someone for Smart, Tough and Beauty contests." The seriousness she’s felt leaves her in that second. Sally sighs, slouching and resting her face in her open notebook. "I don’t know where to begin!" She sighs again. Sally’s head does not remain down for too long. With the sound of footsteps she lifts her head up. Franny greets her with a smile from the doorway.

"You’re thinking about entering contests?" She asks with a smile. Without waiting for a response the adult takes a seat next to the younger girl. Franny plucks up the notebook from under Sally’s head to look it over. It’s rather empty. The only two things jotted down are the idea contest types for Mirabelle and Kenshin.

"Starting is always the hardest," The woman smiles at Sally’s fallen face,"You have a few ideas set in stone, so that’s good!" 

"Yeah but I don’t know what kind of pokemon to pick. . .?"

"No one can make that decision but you! You have time until your first contest anyway. Until then you need to prepare your pokemon for contests. They need special training and PokeBlocks to help boost their stats!"

"PokeBlocks. . ." Sally repeats to herself in a mumble. She had heard about them once but she never really looked into it before.

"Right! They’re little blocky snacks of various colors and flavors made with berries for pokemon to boost their stats for contests! PokeBlocks come out at their best when they’re made with many people too!" Franny explains. For some reason she seems to be rather excited. Was she once in contests herself? The way her eyes shimmer and she smiles seems to point to a yes. The young woman suddenly jumps to her feet and she bolts from the room.

Sally takes this opportunity to jot down some of the newly acquired information down. She stops several minutes later when she hears loud footsteps and stumbling. Franny reenters the room, her arm full gardening supplies and a book. She stumbles over to the table and drops everything on top of it in a hazardous crash landing. Sally curiously takes the book that was buried under all the gardening supplies. The pile shifts but doesn’t collapse thankfully. The thin book turns out to be an old magazine with glossy pictures of various pokemon coordinators and their prized pokemon in action.

"Look at the pokemon," Franny smiles leaning over Sally’s shoulder to point at a young man’s Machamp in the magazine. "You wouldn’t think this a pokemon fit for a Beauty Contest but this young man used the strength of his partner to show the beauty within his pokemon."

"He used this pokemon in a Beauty Contest?" Sally blinks. She never would have thought of that. . .

"A true coordinator uses whatever pokemon they desire and brings out its best skills!" Franny smiles. The two talk for many long hours. Sally ends up sleeping on the carpet. Franny quietly laughs a little before removing the blanket from her shoulders to drape the child.

Franny climbs to her feet with a small smile and takes her leave. She quietly walks down the hall to her room. She’s outside her room when she pauses to look at her wrist. There are scars but they’re old and faded. She lightly rubs her wrist with a melancholic look on her face.

". . .Sorry. I’ll keep living a little longer. I want to see . . . how far she can reach with her goals." 

* * *

When morning comes Khris finds Sally laying face down in the carpet and both of her pokemon are perched on her back. His left hand stops scratching his tired head to fall to his side as he gazes upon his friend with a deadpan look. Incredible. Khris expels a heavy sigh, grabbing a pillow from the couch, he kneels down to Sally’s side. There’s a moment of hesitation before he takes her by the shoulders and gives her a shake. Sally responds by hazardly swinging her arm in his direction but Khris was able to block the assault with the pillow.

It takes several more attempts before he can actually get Sally to wake up. The girl drowsily looks at her friend before rising up making her pokemon tumble off her back. Mirabelle lands on her stubby paws with a gleeful smile while Kenshin is thrown against the couch and lands on his head. The gecko glares with crossed arms. Khris apologizes before turning back to Sally and reminds her they need to get to Rustboro. As soon as Rustboro registered in the girls mind she was on her feet and rushing to the bathroom to prepare for the day.

True to her word Franny had prepared a small breakfast for the two preteens. Sally took her food down like a vacuum would suck up dirt. Once she was finished she almost ran right out of the little house without cleaning up. Thankfully a glare from Khris reminded her.

Now, rested and with a full stomach, the two were ready to tackle the day. Franny bids them farewell and good luck before opening her humble shop for the day.

The shop was not a far distance from the city, in fact, with an hours walk down a dirt road and over an old wooden bridge they were just outside the city.

Rustboro City was a nice little metropolis that integrated nature and science in its design. The city was actually off the coast and is surrounded with trees. Streets were paved with pale yellow stones and white walkways with intricate designs. There were various buildings that resided in the city, one being the Devon Corporation, a business that makes many useful items for trainers. The other building of interest would be the Pokemon Trainer School, which also doubled as a gym. Sally was less interested in the school part rather than the gym battle but as soon as she and Khris entered the building they were handed pencils and paper.

"What’s going on. . .?" Sally asks, scratching her head as she follows Khris to a seat in the middle row of the classroom. Khris motions to the two seats so Sally takes her seat first.

"You arrived early I suppose," he replies, siding into the seat next to her. "I came for the study material." Before Sally can even make a complaint a woman enters the room with a book and ruler in hand. She seems rather young for a gym leader in Sally’s opinion but she has an air around her for sure. The young lady is dressed in a navy knee length dress, with a white collar and pink tie. On her legs are tights that match the color of her tie and navy flats. Her brown hair is pinned back with a pink hair ribbon.

Everyone ceases their chatter to watch this woman descent down the stairs to the front of the classroom. Once she arrives at her destination she closes her book, neatly and carefully, placing it on the desk next to her ruler. She turns around to the blackboard to write her name in a smooth movement. Once she finishes she places the chalk down with a quiet clink.

Roxanne, according to what’s written on the board, turns to the class and opens her book once more.

"As you all know, I am Roxanne and I’m your teacher for this lesson. I hope the new faces in our class have read the recommended material before arriving because I will not review any of the past material for them." With that said Roxanne slams her fist on the chalkboard. The chalkboard spins to the other side without a complaint. Sally pales at what the other side of the chalkboard holds. It’s all sorts of various information that she’s never really heard of or cared to look up. She gives Khris a helpless glance to only discover he’s taking notes on everything on the board in his journal.

Of course.

Why did she even think he would help her?

He was in the zone.

The Learning Zone.

Once he was in there was no way to pull him out.

Khris jots down all sorts of information in his notebook as Roxanne speaks. His face is calm and focused as his hand moves with such speed and still able to produce a clear penmanship. Sally glances around the classroom. The other students are taking notes or intensely listening to Roxanne. She looks back to Roxanne herself, she’s writing as fast as Khris and talking about something else. Status ailments pokemon can suffer in battle or post battle. Something like that. Sally feels her face twitch. This is it. She’s going to die in this classroom.

She mutely stares down at her blank paper and pencil. Fuck it. Sally can’t seem to will herself to care. The doors are locked so she can’t leave the lesson if she wants to. She might as well entertain herself somehow. This might be some good time to plan her contest team some more and secure some plan to the next city where her gym badge would be. . ..

The lecture went on for hours and Sally was lost in her own little world. In her lap was the magazine from Franny and she flipped from page to page, jotting down ideas or things that inspired her on the sheet of paper that was given to her when she entered the building. The only reason she came to a stop was because she was handed a stack of papers by one of Roxanne’s aids. 

She looks at it puzzled. What the heck was this paper for? She takes one sheet from the top of the stack and hands the stack to Khris all while squinting her eyes and giving it a hard stare. She continues to stare until she finally realizes what it is. Sally jumps to her feet with impressive speed and loudly yells; “A test?!” in the quiet classroom. All eyes are on her making her suddenly feel nervous. Roxanne laughs a little.

"But of course, as a teacher I need to examine how much information my students have absorbed. Now take your seat and begin your test ma’am." Sally does as she’s told, slowly sinking into her seat with a bright red face. The reasons could range from embarrassment or frustration. With shaking hands Sally looks over the first question.

* * *

**Name the status ailment and the natural cure.**

**1.) Your Pokemon is rapidly losing its health despite no open wounds or visible injuries.**

f uck.

* * *

Sally sits on the floor under her desk. She has a look on her face that screams I’m so dumb kill me now. Khris sighs, balancing his head in a hand that rests on the table.

"You should have paid attention."

"Shut up," She whines back. He chooses not to reply. He turns back to the front of the classroom, hands in his laps and sitting up tall while he waits for the results. The door to Roxanne’s personal office suddenly opens with a rattling bang. The young woman comes out with a test in hand and her book is almost slipping from her arm in all of her excitement. All can see her wide, bright smile and sparkling eyes as she looks around the room.

"Khris Birch! Where are you? Come here!" Khris takes a calm stride to the teacher. Roxanne happily shows him his test score, a perfect 100. With a smile Khris takes his test sheet back but before he can pocket it Roxanne takes both of his hands, dropping her book in the process. He blinks. "Amazing! I’ve never seen such a score before, especially to a latecomer to my classes! I would be honored to battle a trainer like you!" Khris shakes his head.

"Sorry, but I’m not interested in battling. I wanted to see your classes for myself. I’ve heard wonderful reviews of them." Roxanne’s eyes shimmer with happiness.

"I commend you!" She wails, nearly in tears. "Few students come to my classes for my classes alone! You’re such a kind boy!!!" As the two spoke before the classroom the aids were returning test papers. Many students were grumbling over their scores, somewhere heading to the front of the class to line up and request a battle with the Gym Leader. Sally was not one of those students. With the 10% written on her paper in bright red ink she decided she could lay on the floor in defeat a little longer.


	4. Chapter 4

  


Slowly, Sally finds the willpower to drag herself out of the building. An ‘F’. Who ever heard a prerequisite test before? That was so dumb!! Just let her into the gym and punch that leader in the face! Geez!

With an angry huff, the girl balls up the sheet of paper and throws it to the ground. Sally continues to give the sheet of paper a look of disapproval when suddenly a person runs right past her and shoves her out of their way. Sally spins on her feet in an exaggerated and cartoony way that leaves her in a tizzy and her steps are unsteady. She can hear someone yelling but she’s clueless to who they were. Or, at least she was until the person grabbed her by the shoulders and brought her to their face.

Oh.

It was that Yuu guy from the forest.

"Sup." she greets.

"THEY STOLE THE GOODS! PLEASE SAVE THE GOODS!" Before Sally can even respond with a simple ‘what’ she’s dragged in the direction of Route 116 and tossed into the tall grass. Sally slowly rises from the tall grass covered in dirt. She splits out strands of grass before glaring at the adult.

"You know for a wuss you sure are strong!" The girl barks. Grimacing Sally climbs to her feet to brush away the dirt and heads to the east. It’s probably the pirate at work again. . . It shouldn’t be too hard to deal with him. The impact with the ground had caused Maribelle to be released from her pokeball and. . . break the button on the pokeball. jesus christ. Nonetheless the kitten pokemon follows behind her trainer with a big happy smile on her face even as they walk past an injured old man. Maribelle didn’t really care although. It wasn't Sally.

"What the heck happened here?" Sally inquires from one of the men supporting the old man.

"Some. . . pirate came running through here and demanded we let him through the cave! He even took this geezer’s Wingull!"

"Not like he could get through," The second man snorts. "The cave is still a mess." Sally squints her eyes and rubs her chin thoughtfully.

"Trapped like a Rattata huh?" Once she nods to herself the girl takes off running into the cave, completely ignoring the yells of the adults. The inside of the cave was full of a thick fog, thankfully it was not bad enough that Sally could not see figures in the cave. Whismur scrambled about trying to find a hiding spot as they sensed the impending fight. After a few more minutes of walking Sally found the pirate guy at a series of tall stone boulders blocking off the path. The man looked pretty desperate as he used one hand to feel around the rocks for some hole to squeeze through.

"Hey creepy pirate guy." Sally calls out to the adult. The man flinches, slowly turning his head. For a moment he seemed calm but as soon as he recognized Sally that was thrown out the window.

"I told ya ye wench! I am a proud member of Team Aqua!" the pirate yells once he pulls himself together. Sally waves off his response without care.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’m just here for the pokemon and the stolen goods. So hand them over."

"Hell no!" The grunt snarls, shifting the case to the front of his chest and keeping the captive pokemon under his under arm. The pokemon squawks at the man with annoyance. Sally sighs, shrugging her shoulders.

"You brought this on yourself."

"I wh-HOLY. . .!" And so, Sally chose to jump the grunt as if she was a Houndoom pouncing on its prey. He stumbles back, releasing it’s captive. Maribelle chooses to bite the man’s leg with her sharp fangs. He yells in response and shakes his leg, throwing the kitten pokemon away and into a rock at the other end of the tunnel. Sally slams her elbow into the guy’s stomach, bringing the grunt down to the ground. The Wingull escapes the clutches of evil at last and flies over to Maribelle’s side. The grunt pulls at her hair and she scratches at his face. They roll all over the hard ground, kicking up dust and crashing into rocks.

The Whismur whimpers and suddenly unleashes loud cries. The cavern begins to shake and it only gets worse as the yelling gathers the attention of it’s evolved family members. Loudreds soon come into view, stomping their feet to shake the cave as a warning sign. Once they see that it isn't stopping the two humans fighting they unleash a shattering scream. That makes the two separate in seconds but because the Loudred are far more powerful than a simple Whismur the effects are far more devastating. 

It happens too fast for Sally to escape. She covers her eyes and head to the best of her ability as the tunnel shakes and rocks tumble down in huge numbers. Dust flies up in a furry, leaving her blind and helpless as there’s a sudden sharp pain to her leg. The grunt unleashes a blood curdling scream among all the chaos. Sally didn’t need to be as smart as Khris to realize that the guy was probably crushed under rock.

Finally the dust settles and small stones fall on her head. Sally takes a look around herself. She can see a twitching hand and blood escaping from under rubble next to her. Not far away is the case containing the stolen goods. Well. The corporation probably didn’t have to worry about that guy stealing them any more. The Wingull suddenly lands on her shoulder nuzzling it’s body against her face. The girl smiles at the pokemon, glad to know it’s safe. Sally tries to stand and grab the case herself only for a violent stab of pain to shoot through her foot. Wincing, she looks to her leg. There’s a medium sized stone right on her foot. Oh Arceus the pain.

She gives the rock a shove, rolling it off her foot. Sally leans against the stone wall for support as she limps over to the case. With the silver case in hand she stumbles out of the cave. Sally winces as the bright light suddenly greets her but that’s not all, there seems to be an army of Skitties and various officers and medical professionals. Officers enter the cave with the intention of arresting the Aqua grunt and inspecting the scene of the crime. Sally is assisted over to a first aid vehicle where she is greeted by a Chansey. The egg pokemon happily wraps her injured foot up and applies a potion to the Wingull that is still hanging off her shoulder. They seagull pokemon thanks the two of them before reuniting with the elderly man that is her master. The old man laughs heartily, brushing the feathers of his beloved pokemon.

"Ah! Peeko! Am I glad to see you’re safe!" The pokemon chirps. He smiles, looking over to Sally. "Peeko owes her life to you! They call me Mr. Briney. And, you are?"

"I’m Sally Banks." Sally grins, proud to know she saved the pokemon and her trainer was grateful for her efforts. The old man looks to her thoughtfully, rubbing his chin.

"I see! I sincerely thank you! Now, if there’s anything that troubles you, don’t hesitate to tell me! You can usually find me in my cottage by the sea near Petalburg Woods." he casts a glance to his partner pokemon. "Come, Peeko, we should make our way home." she chirps once more and the two start their trek back home. Sally lets out a sigh, slouching in her seat. Suddenly Maribelle jumps into her lap. The kitten pokemon mewls and curls up comfortably in her master’s lap. Sally lets out another sigh as she pets her prized pokemon.

Well, at least they both made it out alive. Sally glances over to the silver case leaning against the wall. What the heck was in that thing that made that weird pirate so determined to steal it?


	5. Chapter 5

Sally more or less threw the suitcase into Yuu’s face as soon as she saw him. The man gladly thanks her and then proceeds to drag her off. Oh Arceus. What is happening now? Sally is forced to follow the man back to the city and she is taken to the Devon Corporation building.

Why is she being taken here?

She does not ask, knowing that this Yuu guy probably won’t answer her in his hurry to drag her up staircase after staircase. Once she’s on the fourth floor the adult asks her to wait by the door before he bolts up to the staircase to the following floor.

Sally stands around on one foot, trying to keep pressure off her bad one for the moment. She looks to her wrist as if she was checking the time. Several minutes probably passed but she had no idea. Sally sighs once more. Looking around she notices the floor is occupied by scientists typing away on their computers. How boring. . .

Yuu returns after what seems like forever with a wide smile on his face.

“The president would like to meet you.”

Like the President of Orre?

Unfortunately (?), it was not the President of Orre, but rather the president of the company. Well. That made more sense at least. The company president smiles pleased at her.

“I’ve been informed you have helped out our employee a couple of times when he was robbed. I have to thank you for that.” The man reaches into the drawer of his desk and places a factory sealed PokeNav on top of his desk. Sally blinks. She looks the man dead in the eyes as she takes the box and slides it closer to herself. She slowly brings the box up to her face.

The girl squints her eyes. It’s. . . the real deal. Well, this is better than a bunch of great balls. . .

“Well, it wasn’t a problem,” Sally explains taking the box under her arm. “He needed help so I helped.” The man smiles.

“And for that we are grateful. The suitcase that fiend tried to steal contained a very important component for a submarine in Slateport city. It took years of research and engineering to perfect this part. There’s no other like it and to lose it would set us and the project back for years.”

Oh. Well. That would suck.

The adult folds his hands together on his desktop and leans forward in his seat with a serious face.

“And now, I would like to request something of you. I have heard you are traveling around Hoenn at the moment. I would like for you to deliver this part to Captain Stern in Slateport City.”

“Okay. I’ll need to head that way with my friend Khris,” Sally shrugs. Yuu extends the case to her and she takes it without a second thought. “He’s going there for some pokemon convention for his dad.” The president nods as he reaches into his pocket. He removes an envelope and hands it to her.

“Also, if you could, in Dewford Town there is a young man by the name of Steven Stones, could you give this to him?” Sally takes the envelope, she examines it before shoving it in her bag.

“Sure thing, but can I ask something of you?” the president smiles.

“Of course,”

“Can I have another PokeNav? One for my friend, Khris and I will part ways because he’s gonna do some research for his dad. I’d like someway to contact him.” The president hums before nodding his head.

“Yes, I can arrange that,” he presses a button on the speaker that sits on his desk.

“Yes Mr. Stone?” The secretary’s voice is full of smiles and joy. The way Mr. Stone smiled back she was probably happy to work here.

“Yes, I have a guest in my office, she is in need of one PokeNavi. If you would be so kind to retrieve one and wrap it up for her I would be grateful.”

“Yes sir, I’ll get right on that.” Mr. Stone smiles, folding his arms behind his back.

“There you are Ms. Sally, please take care.” Sally nods her head and waves goodbye to the adults. Excitement runs through Sally as she runs down the stairs, unfortunately she got too excited and tripped over her feet on the staircase to the first floor. She flies down the staircase, limbs and items flying about and ends up smashing her face against the tiled floor.

Still, Sally walks off like the champ she is and approaches the front desk where the secretary hands her the box.

* * *

“What happened to you?!”

What a lovely greeting from Khris. But to be fair to him, to find your friend, that vanished for a couple of hours, with a sprained ankle you would be screaming too.

“Not much,” Sally waves off. She then hands off the wrapped box to Khris. The redhead blinks his eyes and pushes his glasses into place with his middle finger.

“Please tell me you didn’t steal this.” Sally glares at her friend. She puffs her cheeks out with a huff and points a finger into his chest.

“Of course not! Mr. Stone gave me an extra because I asked him for one!” Khris looks at her with disbelief.

“Gave it to you? Why would he do that?”

“Apparently the guy I saved in the woods was one of his employees and they were carrying precious cargo at the time. He got robbed again today too. My PokeNav was a thank you gift.”

“. . .I see. Well, thank you for asking for another for me.” Sally happily beams in response. Khris manages a small smile and opens his mouth to thank her when he is cutoff before he can even speak.

“Sally Banks, am I correct?” To their surprise the approaching voice turns out to be the Gym Leader Roxanne.

“Ah, yes?”

“I heard of the deeds you performed. I believe I have judged you prematurely, so,” Roxanne opens her text book to reveal it was hollowed out and contained two pokeballs. Roxanne snatches up one, presses the button in the center letting the sphere expand as she points it at Sally. “I want to see your potential for myself!”

Roxanne threw out Geodude, and Sally sent out Kenshin.

The two pokemon went at each other almost instantly, Geodude throwing a punch, and Kenshin dodging and smashing the rock pokemon across the face with an iron tail. The two leap back from each other and stare each other down. Kenshin squints and then unleashes a bullet seed barrage. Geodude cartwheels from hand to hand to avoid the attack before curling into a roll out and speeds towards Kenshin. The gecko front flips over Geodude as the pokemon crashes into a streetlight, completely knocking it over. Arceus, they were making a mess already.

Seeing his chance while Geodude was stunned, Kenshin charged and slammed another iron tail on the rock pokemon knocking it unconscious. Kenshin stood on Geodude and glared up at Roxanne, spitting sharply to the side.

Roxanne returns the knocked out Geodude and Kenshin falls on his ass.

Kenshin gets back up as Roxanne throws out Nosepass. The gecko squints at the pokemon before charging ahead and throwing an iron tail at it, however Nosepass simply sidesteps the attack causing Kenshin to slam the attack into the asphalt sending fragments everywhere. Whoever maintains these streets is not going to be happy. . .

A rock hits Kenshin square in the face. The pokemon growls as it realizes Nosepass seriously just threw a rock at it. It just cannot believe this. Kenshin charges another iron tail and the nosepass just steps back and the attack hits the street again. Enraged, Kenshin uses bullet seed. Nosepass simply scurries to the side while still keeping its face straight forward. It runs to the side and then forward and then to the side, heck it even runs diagonally. Kenshin lets out a roar as it tries to throw another iron tail but gets hit midair by a rock. The gecko tumbles across the asphalt before catching itself and glaring up at Nosepass. Man, if looks could kill.

“Okay what’s up with that thing?” Sally deadpans to Khris.

“It’s a Nosepass, it always has to face North,” Khris adjusted his glasses and let out a sigh like he expected that to be common knowledge.

“Ah,” Sally responds, and then holds up her pokeball to return Kenshin. The gecko resists but is ultimately sucked into the sphere. Arceus, you could feel its glare even inside the pokeball.

Sally throws out Maribelle. The Skitty excitedly begins dashing about the street. It runs around Nosepass in circles as the compass pokemon tries to attack and keep its balance. Unfortunately the actions couldn’t coincide as Nosepass turns to Maribelle to try and land a stone edge and ends up getting hit by a mass of the world's magnetic fields as the Skitty dodges the attack with ease and Nosepass falls onto its face. Completely disoriented and completely knocked out.

“GOAL!” Sally shouts, throwing her arms in the air. Roxanne sighs, returning her pokemon to its pokeball. She tugs on the chain around her neck, revealing a silver key attached to it, and she uses the key to open the lock on her second book. It's a thin book and just like the last one it is hollowed out to store Gym Badges. Roxanne takes one and reluctantly hands it over to Sally.

“The Pokémon League’s rules state that Trainers are to be given this if they defeat a Gym Leader. Please accept the official Pokémon League Stone Badge.” Sally happily snatches the badge out of the young woman’s hand and then proceeds to pin it to the strap of her bag. “I will admit you do have some skill, but the only reason you beat me was because your friend told you about Nosepass’s weakness.” Roxanne huffs, waving her finger in Sally’s face.

“You need to better educate yourself on the pokemon surrounding you!” The woman then proceeded to lecture Sally on the possibilities of what could happen if she was in a situation where she knew nothing about a wild pokemon that was after her. Khris places his hands on his friend’s shoulders and slowly backs away.

“Yes, well, thank you. I’ll. . . make sure to help her with that. But we should go. To Rock Tunnel.” Roxanne tilts her head.

“Rock Tunnel? Why would you go there?”

“To get to Slateport City.”

“Oh no,” Roxanne shakes her head. “There was an explosion in a cave earlier this afternoon. There’s no way to get through the cave so you’ll have to take a ferry boat to get to Slateport City.” Khris suddenly falls to his knees to defeat.

So close yet so far.


	6. Chapter 6

Calloused hands flip through pages of text of old. The young man reading through all the information seems utterly bored. To be honest, he’s uninterested. He knows these old texts are bound to have some sort of information they’ll need but he hasn’t come across any so far.

Elbow propped on the tabletop, he sighs and places his chin in the palm of his hand.

“How boring.” He mumbles. “I know there’s something here. . .Miller!” The young man leans back in his seat to the point he’s only balancing on the last two legs of the chair. A head of blonde hair peeks out from behind a row of bookshelves in the library. She approaches him with her own heavy textbook in hand, her eyes sparkling as if they have diamonds within them.

“Have you found anything?” The young woman shakes her head. “How disappointing. . .” he mutters, The young woman huffs. Realizing his error he quickly adds. “Not you, I mean the lack of information,” he sighs. “We have all these books here but it’s so hard to find anything sometimes. Sometimes pages are lost, damaged or torn from the book and most text is in a lost language. It’s rather frustrating. . .” The young woman nods.

The doors of the library open up and in comes another young woman with silvery-brown hair carrying a stack of paper.

“Ah, Steel. What’s up?” Galvin asks with an interested hum.

“I got some info from one of mom’s friends on the Mega Stones.” Steel proudly announces, grinning widely with a sparkling smile and a hand on her hip.

“Thanks Steel,” The young man smiles, closing the book before him and collects the stack of paper from his significant other. The stack is thin, but it’s a start at the very least. Months ago he first discovered these stones in one of the books and was rather interested. Stones with the ability to enhance the power of a pokemon, if they could find a stone that matches their Soul form and find a way to use the stone while in their Soul form they could gain incredible power.

This would be incredibly beneficial to them. . .

“Oh yeah, how’s Gwen?” Galvin inquires flipping through the papers. “Have we received any reports yet?”

“Just one,” Steel lets out a sigh and leans against the table. Galvin pauses his shuffling to look up to her, giving her his full attention. “She mentioned a group of pirates or something going around and trying to procure important goods for a submarine that can reach depths humans are unable to reach. Old legends of Hoenn tell of two great pokemon of legends that went to a deep slumber in such depths.”

“So it’s possible they’re after the pokemon?”

“Yes but I doubt she will need extra aid. She has Nick with her and her reports also mentions two children with the potential to perform Soul as well.” The young man nods to himself.

“I see. That’s reassuring.” He turns to the blonde. “Why don’t you catch up on your rest Miller? You’ve been helping around here for days.” She bows her head and exits the room with graceful steps.

* * *

Somehow Sally and Khris arrive at Mr. Briney’s house. It took several hours, even with all the running, but it was far too dark to take the boat out at this hour. Reluctantly the two accepted fate and stayed the night at the shack.

It was a small homely place right on the beach. It almost felt like they were home, but they knew very well they weren’t. Khris fell to sleep rather quickly but once again, Sally was wide awake and flipping through her magazines. The shoji paper door slides open and a Wingull flies into the room and takes a seat on Sally’s head. Sally glances up to the bird to find it staring at her book. Sally glances down to continue reading as well.

“Oh, still awake?” Mr. Briney asks when he pokes his head into the room. “Peeko didn’t come back so I got curious.”

“Yeah, just reading.” Curious, the old man walks over to the side of the kotatsu that Sally is laying by and takes a seat in front of her to look at the magazine she’s reading. The old man hums.

“Interested in contests?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I want to try at least.”

“I see. If I remember right, all contests were moved to the Lilycove building a few years or so ago. So a young trainer like you will have time to build a magnificent team.”

“I have an idea, but it's hard to decide on the pokemon to use for Beauty contests though. Maybe something with ice or water.” Sally pulls herself upright and puffs her cheeks out. “Ice is really pretty and so is water,” she sighs, placing her elbow on her knee and balancing her head in the palm of her hand. “Water will definitely be useful when I start to travel alone.” The old man raises a brow and glances over to Khris.

“What about your friend over there?”

“Ah. Khris is going to do some research for his father across Hoenn. So,” Sally scratches the back of her head, awkwardly glancing aside. “we’ll have to part ways. . . it kinda sucks because I always wanted to travel with him but I can’t. I’m so indecisive in what I want to do so I would cause him problems probably if we did travel together,” she sighs, looking out the window. Mr. Briney suddenly laughs, loudly at that, and slaps Sally on the back.

“Don’t worry! No matter how far apart you are you’ll always be connected to your friend! Besides, you’ll make many new friends as you explore the world! You’re a great kid!” Sally smiles, feeling a little at ease. That is right. She has met nice people so far on this trip so far. Ms. Frany and there is even Mr. Briney and Peeko.

“Thanks. . .” The old man grins, extending an arm to his Wingull. Peeko hops on without a second thought. The man bids Sally a good night and exits the room, shutting the shoji behind him with a quiet click.

“Oi, Sally. . .?” Khris groggily asks. He rises up slightly, rubbing his eye. “What’s going on? I heard noises.”

“Nothing, nothing,” she smiles, waving at him. “Just talking to Mr. Briney. Go to sleep.” He stares at her with a sleepy face before he lets his arms give out on him and fall on his face. He mumbles a goodnight into the tatsumi mat and blankets on the floor.

Sally smiles once more because it looks completely silly. She glances down to her magazine once more and her eyes go wide. The picture depicts a man of great beauty and grace with a gorgeous serpent like pokemon. Sally’s eyes start to sparkle. She grins.

What a beautiful pokemon.

* * *

Sadly, when morning came Sally was dead tired. It seems she was awake all night long trying to learn more about that pokemon she found in the magazine last night. Mr. Briney just laughed and showed her to a hammock on the lower floor of his ship. As soon as she lays down Maribelle pops out of her pokeball and rests on Sally’s stomach. She’s out cold in seconds which leaves the two men alone on the deck.

There's a single chair on the deck and it’s Briney’s usual fishing chair but Khris has occupied it as he makes observations of the surrounding area. He probes his bottom lip with a curious look. There seemed to be a lack of water pokemon despite this being reported to be a highly populated area.

How odd.

“Curious about the pokemon, aren’t ya?” Mr. Briney asks. Khris tilts his head back to face the adult.

“Yes, I’ve been told this is a populated area but there’s barely any pokemon around.”

“Well, it would be because of-” Before he can supply a proper explanation the boat suddenly starts to rock wildly in the rough waters. Mr. Briney takes it in stride while Khris flops around and tumbles down the stairs to the floor below. He hits the bottom of the stairs with a loud thud. After a minute or two the ship stops rocking wildly and the sea is calm once more. Once Khris locates his glasses and slides them into place he looks around for Sally.

She’s not hard to find. She’s under the hammock with a bloody nose and Maribelle is sitting on her back as if there is nothing wrong.

Still, what was that now? An earthquake? That’s completely unheard of but he can’t think of any other explanation to what just happened. He shakes his head. No. That can wait for another time. Right now Sally needs help.


	7. Chapter 7

Khris’s thoughts were confirmed shortly after patching up Sally’s nose. It was indeed the work of an earthquake that shook the boat. According to the old man, for whatever reason, earthquakes were becoming frequent in that area despite no history of a phenomenon happening there before.

As strange as it was Khris decides not to question. At least for now. This might serve for some interesting research results later on although.

Nonetheless, they all arrived in Dewford in one piece. Once he docks the boat, Mr. Briney heads over to the PokeCenter with a hearty laugh, to wait for them to finish up their business. The town was simple for what it was. It consisted of several small buildings on the beach’s shoreline along with an official Pokemon League Gym and Pokemon Center. However, there was no Poke Mart to be found.

That’s a bit of a bummer, Sally noted as she was interested in checking out the stationary they sold at the market. Usually each town or city sold their own unique one. Well, without any distractions in her path now, Sally decides to get to work on locating this Steven fellow.

* * *

_“Who is that?”_

_“No idea.”_

_“Haven’t heard of him.”_

_“Is that some new band?”_

* * *

After questioning several different natives Sally realized that her quest clearly was not going well. It was honestly quite baffling. It was a small island and yet no one has seen Steven. She could understand not seeing him because he left the island but so many people have not seen or heard of him at all.

That makes no sense.

“Yo,” A fisherman calls approaching her. Sally blinks. “I heard you were looking for stones.”

Sally grimaces. Well, not exactly.

“Granite Cave over there produces some rare stones. You might find something useful there!” The man laughs and bids farewell to the two pre-teens, a bucket in his hands and his fishing rod resting on his shoulder, grinning over a successful day of work.

Well, it’s a lead. . .

Sorta.

A guy named Steven Stones would like to look for stones, right?

. . .

Probably.

* * *

The cavern in question is dark but with the little sunlight from the entrance it is easy to notice there are some stones that have gemstones and glittering stones jutting from them. The path that leads the way to a ladder that leads to the dark floors below. Sally pulls a flashlight from her bag and makes her descent downwards.

The redhead rubs his neck with a sigh. He shouldn’t leave her alone. . . Meaning he has no choice but to tag along with her.

Again.

His eyes suddenly pop open.

“Wait a minute! Your ankle is still sprained! Sally!!!”

* * *

The stone was a green-black color but as the light shines on it, it glimmers and twinkles like the stars in the night sky. If she was guessing right, this was probably a Moon Stone. This was perfect! With this she could evolve Maribelle and make her even cuter!!

Sally tries to wiggle the stone with one hand. It seems to move ever so slightly but it’s going to need more power and effort to pull it. Sally hands the flashlight to Khris and he holds it up without a complaint. A grin grows across Sally’s face as she takes the stone in two of her hands and plants her good foot against the wall and tugs. With several tugs Sally is able to pull the moon stone free from the rock. She smiles proudly as she regains her footing.

“Perfect! A Moon Stone is just what I need as a secret weapon!”

“A secret weapon?” Khris deadpans, unable to understand her glee.

“But of course! Maribelle is a cutie and she will be a formidable foe in cute contests but she’ll be even more when she evolves!!”

“So you decided to do contests?” Sally shrugs as she stows away the stone in her bag. Sally climbs down the stone staircase to continue their search for Steven.

“I think. . . I’ll do both.” Khris blinks.

“You know, contests are a lot of effort. Not to mention costly with grooming, equipment, food and snacks.” Sally puffs her cheeks in response as she crosses her arms.

“I-I knew that!” No she didn’t. All she thought of was to organize the perfect team. . . but Khris is right. Contest work is more than just pulling together a team. A lot of training would go into it and by accessorizing and grooming a pokemon she could make them look better for their contest of choice.

Lost in thought, Sally is left wide open to accidentally slam her foot into something rather hard. She immediately kneels over and holds onto her foot. She’s just lucky it wasn’t her bad foot. Khris shines the flashlight onto his friend to discover the reason for her pain. Seems she crashed right into an Aron but the pokemon seems to be beaming at the attention although.

Once the pain subsides, Sally lifts up the pokemon and examines it. It has a tough metal like shell. It probably eats metal too. How. . . TOUGH. What a perfect pokemon for tough contests!! Yes. This is perfect!

“I’m going to call you Jordan.” The pokemon lets out gleeful sounds and does a little dance to the best of it’s abilities — which looks more like he’s wagging his stubby limbs about — in Sally’s hands. Sally lifts the pokemon above her head and chases after Khris, who had walked off during Sally’s meeting with the wild pokemon since something caught his attention.

* * *

The young researcher had walked a distance away from his friend to find a horde of wild Sableyes. The purple impish pokemon hopped about and clacked their sharp teeth at each other. Probably a form of communication. Khris slowly and carefully shines the light of the flashlight on a giant moon stone on the floor. The light is refracted, producing several dots that catch the interest of the pokemon.

Khris quickly jots down some notes on the pokemon’s actions and appearances. There is a young one among the horde, a newborn if he is correct, and it lacks the usual twinkling gemstone eyes like all the rest. In fact it looks like it has holes in its head.

“I see, the pokemon’s diet must cause the gemstone-like eyes to develop. . .” That’s interesting. All there seems to be in this cave was Moon Stones. Did the moon stones cause the green tinted gemstone eyes? Was it possible for the pokemon’s eyes to be a different hue of color if it had a diet of fire stones or thunder stones?

“HEY KHRIS!” Sally shouts stumbling into the scene, completely oblivious of what she’s just walked into. Khris’s face falls. Every Sableye has its eye on Sally now. In unison their jaws make loud snapping sounds as they circle the girl. Jordan jumps from its trainer’s arms and gets into a defensive stance. The pokemon digs its tiny little feet into the loose wet dirt of the ground and spins around to kick the mud right into the surrounding pokemon’s face.

“Jordan is going to need some help. Kenshin, help us out!” Kenshin was less than thrilled to be thrown into a battle in a dark dank cave. However, when a Sableye punches him in the face, he decides he’ll get angry later.

He attempts to slap the pokemon in the face with a rough pound attack, but his hand phases right through. Kenshin looks to his hand and back to the pokemon, who seems to be chattering mockingly. Infuriated, he proceeds to use an absorb attack to suck an abundance of the pokemon’s energy. Drained, the Sableye has problems keeping a spirit like form, forcing it to take a physical one once more. Kenshin grabs the Sableye and proceeds to throw it to assert that it is the better pokemon.

The Sableye chatters in protests as it flung about in the air and roughly lands on Khris’s shoulder. He tenses and sits as still as he can, desperately hoping that the pokemon won't attack him, but the young researcher’s hopes were unfounded. The Sableye sinks its claws into his shoulder and proceeds to loudly chatter for back up. In seconds, Khris is covered in a swarm of angry pokemon.

“OH MY CHRIST. GET THEM OFF ME.” He screams as they scratch at his skin and clothes. Khris attempts to shake the pokemon off him or knock them aside, but they all retain a ghostly form, causing his hand to move right through them. Khris fumbles for a pokemon on his belt, out of the three he has, Zippy might be the best choice with his vision in darker areas and a fierce bite.

Khris’s Trapinch bursts from its pokeball with a joyful cry. The pokemon lands before it’s trainer, eager to help him, but quickly becomes aggravated with how his owner is being abused by the wild life. It lets out a tiny fierce yell and pounces on a wild Sableye with a bite of it’s powerful jaws. Watching one of their own writhe on the floor in pain, from a simple bite, makes it pretty clear this new pokemon is not one to be messed with. With great reluctance, the Sableyes climb off Khris’s body and skitter into the darkness of the cave.

Khris sighs in relief. Unfortunately, the feeling seems to last only for a few moments before a bright light illuminates the cave.

oh god

what is that?

“Yooooo!!!” He can hear Sally yelling in the distance, but he has no idea why.

Wait.

How could he be so foolish! It’s so obvious! Her pokemon was evolving. Suddenly excited, he ignores the pain the light is giving his eyes at the moment and fumbles for his pen and notepad as the Treeko takes a new shape. The bipedal lizard pokemon grows taller; it’s hands become claws and legs become both bird-like and powerful enough to allow for expert climbing. In addition, the Grovyle has three long leaves on its wrists, a large leaf on top of its head, and two tails that have a leafy appearance.

“Woooow! You look so cool Kenshin!” Sally cheers. However, the pokemon is not as impressed as she is. Sure new power, but it did not want to get into a fight at all. So, he punches Sally in the face but her grinning face never fades. Ignoring his weird trainer, Kenshin approaches Khris to slap his notepad out of his hands with a huff.

What a pissy pokemon.


	8. Chapter 8

Ignoring the fact she was literally punched in the face, Sally was more than happy to see Kenshin evolve. Now he was COOLER looking than ever. This is perfect. Now she has a pokemon for cute, cool and tough contests. Now all she needs is one for smart and beauty contests. That would probably be a little harder although. What is a smart pokemon? What is a beautiful one? Those were a little more superficial and opinionated but then again all of these contestants were opinionated.

Like, someone could find a Grimer to be cute. They could figure out how to make that cuteness appeal to others and win a contest.

Man, contests are such a mystery. . .

Nonetheless, there was still more of this cave to explore in order to find this Steven guy. The duo continues deeper into the cave, climbing up and down the ladders to return to the very first floor of the cave, a couple ledges higher than before. Thankfully, this was not a wild goose chase because there was a narrow path that led to another cavern within the cave.

This path leads to an open room decorated with many beautiful sparkling stones. Crouching in the center of the room by a huge stone was a man with spiky light steely blue hair. He was rather well dressed in a black suit, accompanied with a white collared shirt and red silky ascott. Surprisingly, he was wearing many big silver rings.

The man has yet to notice them as he pockets a stone and he rises to his feet. He proceeds to dust his hands on his pants legs, and glance around the cavern to inspect the rather large series of murals on the wall.

To the left was a mural featuring a giant enraged bipedal pokemon, spewing flames. It was surrounded by furious flaming volcanoes and a blistering hot sun. Interestingly, it had very strange markings on its arms and body.

The mural on the right featured a rather large and unique whale like pokemon and just like the other pokemon, it had its own unique markings on its fins and body. However, instead of flames and volcanos, this one pokemon was surrounded by swelling waves and heavy rain.

The final mural, the one the man stood before, featured a great long green serpent in the sky with some strange triangular markings. Standing under the flying serpent was some human, standing tall as a comet flew in the background.

“So in the ancient world, these primal forms once held so much power. . . ?” He muttered. “Such terrible strength. . . It even appears to be different from Mega Evolution.” He hums thoughtfully before letting out a deep sigh. “But. . . it seems my questions won’t be answered today.”

It was a curious sight but Sally remained focused on her job.

“Do you think that’s the guy?” She asks, leaning over to her friend.

“You’re looking for Steven Stones, correct?” Once Sally nods Khris pushing his glasses into place with a nod of his own. “Then, yes, this gentleman is indeed the man you’re looking for. Steven Stones is a rather recognizable man, being the last leader of the Elite Four and all.” Sally’s eyes go wide.

“Leader of the Elite Four?” Her voice was rather loud and it got the attention of the man. He spins around in surprise but the serious expression on his face fades away in order to crack a small smile to the young children.

“Once was but that’s all in the past.” The man muses. “What brings you children here?” Sally takes a step forward. She digs into her bag and pulls out the letter from Mr. Stone.

“It’s from your father. He asked me to deliver it to you.” Steven smiles, accepting the dirty envelope. He flips it over to check the seal. It was his father’s, just as the girl said.

“Ah. Thank you. You went through all this trouble to deliver this. I need to thank you. Let me see. . .” Steven digs into his pocket and pulls out a disk. “I’ll give you this TM. It contains my favorite move, Steel Wing.” Sally took the disk and examined it. She never really understood how these things worked.

It’s like. . . A DVD — they look like DVDs — and you put it in a TM Case or on the forehead of the pokemon and it teaches the move to the pokemon but then it breaks. Honestly, that was just so cheap. She’s heard that some regions have improved the strength of TMs so they could be reused. . . but still. . . TMs are weird.

“Thank you so much.” Sally grins. “I’m just glad I caught you before you left!” Nodding his head Steven turns back to the mural of the serpent, a serious look on his face once more. “What do you think when you look upon these murals. . .?” He asks suddenly. “A primal world, lost thousands of years in the past. . . Legendary pokemon of tremendous power that became humanity’s greatest threat. . .” Steven lightly runs his fingers over the intricate carvings.

“The terror aroused by that power is clear in this ancient artwork.” Steven nods to himself. Turning back to Sally, he glances over the pokemon following her. A Grovyle, Skitty and an Aron. Steven grins at the sight of the Aron, being a steel pokemon fanatic and all. He quietly laughs.

“Yes, but not all power is terrible. Your Pokémon clearly quite capable as well. Looking at you all together. . . If you keep training, you could even become the Champion of the Pokémon League one day. That’s what I think.” Nodding to himself, the adult decides to take his leave.

“Now, I’ve got to hurry along. Good luck to you and please take care.” With a warm smile Steven waves goodbye and heads out of the cave. Sally waves goodbye as well. She glances to the rock formation Steven was inspecting before to notice a pokeball on the ground.

“Oh?” Sally lifts up the pokeball curiously. Her face falls when she realizes there’s a pokemon inside the pokeball. Steven forgot one of his pokemon . . . Sally disregards Khris’s inquire of what was wrong and took off running. Sadly, there was no sign of the man once she breaches the cavern. Heck, according to some people they say him flying across the ocean on a Metagross.

It was a strange but unique way to travel. Still, by now, Steven had to be some distance away and there was no way to catch up to him. . .

Reluctantly Sally decided to call Mr Stones. The man’s father might have an idea of what to do, besides, she should call him to tell him she delivered the envelope anyway.

* * *

“Tell me, is the pokemon a Beldum?” Sally turns to Khris for an answer. Glancing over the floating iron ball pokemon he nods his head.

“Ah, I believe so. Khris says it is.” There’s a moment of silence and then laughter that makes Sally look at the PokeNavi confused.

“I see, if that is the case then I wouldn’t worry so much. My son likes to give out Beldums to young trainers. If the pokemon is in your hands then I think we don’t have to worry!”

“Oh, well, okay. If you say it’s okay, I guess it is.”

“Good to hear! Please take care of yourself and make sure to deliver that package too! It’s vital that it’s delivered in one piece.”

“Alright, I’ll do my best sir.” The chairman thanks her once more and he ends the call. Well. That’s that she supposes. She got a new pokemon out of it, maybe it can participate in contests too. . . ?

Which she decided to check on when they got out of the cave. Beldum seems to be some psychic steel type. That might count as smart since it uses its mind to attack

Brilliant.

Sally looks so proud of herself as she strolls down the beach but she’s suddenly splashed by a huge wave. The water recedes and she is covered in seaweed. Khris spits out a stream of salt water with a look of disgust.

“Why?” He whispers forlornly. A loud hearty laugh soon fills the air and some guy on a surfboard glides across the ground. This male has unruly sky blue hair, dressed in a black and gray wetsuit accented with orange by the collar, a pair of light blue knee length shorts. He’s wearing a pair of matching fingerless gloves and toe shoes.

What gross shoes.

“Hey dudes,” He laughs, flicking his orange lens sunglasses upwards. “What brings you to my humble town?”

“Your town?” Sally inquires, pulling strands of seaweed from her hair.

“Name’s Brawly! I’m the Gym Leader of Dewford Town. ‘S my job to keep this place safe!”

“Gym leader?” Sally gasps. “Fight me!!”

“Oh, so you’re a trainer? Sure thing!” He laughs. He points to a completely random surfboard sticking in the sand down on the beachline. “Grab that board and meet me in the water.”

“What?” Sally questions with a blank expression on her face. He wants to fight. . . on a surfboard? In the middle of the water?

Why?

But this Brawly guy is already paddling his way back out to sea, a Makuhita on the back of his surfboard. Sally looks between the choices from her current team. Maribelle was a normal type so that was no good. Jordan was a steel and rock pokemon, so maybe it could make for a good matchup but it he fell off the surfboard he would probably sink to the bottom of the ocean floor and that would be a problem. . .

So that left only Kenshin.

Nodding to herself, Sally returns two of her pokemon and enters the sea with her pokemon and the surfboard under her arm. Kenshin’s face screws into utter disgust. Why did he get such an awful trainer. Jesus fucking Christ.

Sally manages to paddle out to sea just fine, even if Kenshin was putting in no effort to help her. Brawly was completely oblivious, or uncaring, of Kenshin’s grumpy mood. Instead he was grinning and waving at her.

“Alright! You took my offer up! Most challengers don’t. . . They’re usually stiffs or have no idea how to surf.”

Oh. So she did had a choice. Kenshin glares at her and she does what she can to ignore it. Brawly seems to ignore it as well, or is too excited to even notice, and paddles further out to see to catch a wave. He and his pokemon easily glide over the surface of the water with a triumphant grins. Brawly’s hand flies over the surface of the wave as he rides through the tunnel of water.

oh arceus

this was a huge mistake

Sally makes an attempt or two to catch a wave but fails rather horribly. Then, rather abruptly, Brawly’s surfboard collides with her own, knocking her off balance and into the water.

“What was that for?!” She demands once she resurfaces.

“We’re having a gym battle after all.” He grins. “Surfing takes a lot of focus and muscle power to succeed! This is a perfect arena for me! Did you really think this was just fun and games?” Sally ducks under the water just a bit but only to make sounds of protest at the young man. She resolves her fit in a matter of seconds and she scrambles into her surfboard just to furiously paddle after the gym leader.

She’ll show him what she’s made of!!

Determined, Sally charges after Brawly -- who is oblivious of her approach -- and slams her surfboard into his. He loses balance for a moment but quickly regains it only to have Kenshin pounce on his Makuhita. Kenshin’s claws dig into the pokemon’s face, forcing him to look right at him, and he proceeds to spit a bullet seed attack to it’s face.

The sheer force of the attack causes the Makuhita to stumble and fall off the surfboard. For laughs, Kenshin jumps off Brawly’s surfboard with a powerful kick causing the gym leader to lose control of his board and fall off. However, due to Kenshin’s powerful legs, Sally is taken by surprise when her pokemon lands on her surfboard, jostling it and they both fall into the water as well.

Khris watches this all from a distance and slowly, the bodies of the trainers wash up on the beach. Makuhita is not far off from his trainer, face down and unmoving while Kenshin drags himself from the water and seats himself under a palm tree, signaling he’s done with battling. Brawly hacks up some salt water and Sally makes sounds of utter disgust as she clears her system. Once the two trainers pull themselves together, they jump to their feet in order to ready their next pokemon.

“You’re a pretty gutsy gal! I like that!” He tosses out a pokeball to reveal his next choice, Machop. He and the pokemon flex in unison. “But, that’s not gonna stop me!”

“Are. . .Are you hitting on me?!” Sally asks in a shrill voice, her cheeks flushing red. Brawly makes a choking sound as his face goes red as well. Clearly, that was not the intention of his words.

“NO! T-T-That’s not what I meant!” Khris makes a face as he watches the two get flustered over a bunch of words interpreted incorrectly. Apparently this Gym Leader was confident in his battling and surfing skills, but girls was another story. Khris sighs deeply. He decides to get the battle rolling again by shouting; ‘FIGHT!’.

As he hoped, it got the two back into the proper mindset and they both recall what they’re even doing in the first place. Still a bit frazzled, Sally scrambles for Jordan's pokeball. With a burst of light, the Iron Armor pokemon takes a stance on the battlefield. He digs his stubby little toes into the sand and bows his head to defend himself.

Machop attempts to karate chop the small pokemon on his head, but thanks to his steel armor, he is mostly unphased. Jordan counter attacks with an Iron Head, his steel helmet glows a bright white hue and he slams his head into the stomach of the Superpower pokemon.

“Suplex that little bug!” Brawly orders.

“Jordan isn’t a bug!” Sally barks back. Well. He kinda looks like a bug. . . but he definitely isn’t a bug!

Regardless, Machop follows the orders given and grabs the tiny pokemon, which weighs in at 133 lbs, and suplexes it into the sand of the beach as if it was nothing. Khris takes note of that and ponders what other pokemon could a Machop lift with ease.

Jordan refuses to let that take him down and jumps back to his little stubby feet once more and slams himself, head first into the face of his opponent. The impact was so strong, it knocked Machop onto its backside where he laid unmoving. Proud of his win, Jordan sat on the enemy’s stomach with a pleased expression.

“Alright!” Brawly cheers. “Congratulations! Take this Knuckle Badge as proof of beating me!” He reaches into a zipped up pocket of his shorts and pulls a gym badge out. He effortlessly tosses it to Sally but just as she was about to catch it, Maribelle pops out of her own pokeball and catches the item in midair and starts to play with the shining object.

All trainers present proceed to watch her for a few moments before Sally kneels down to play with her pokemon, and retrieve her badge, and Brawly proceeds to explain that pokemon up to Level 30 would now listen to her without question.

If only Kenshin would listen. . . Sally mournfully wishes as Maribelle sinks her claws into her hands and playfully nibbles on her fingers. It was cute when she did this but oh god ow.

She takes the badge from her pokemon with her other hand to examine it. It looked pretty dorky, since it was a boxing glove made of blue steel with an amber in the position of a thumb, but it was her dorky badge.

With a grin, she pins the badge on her bag strap, under Roxanne’s Stone Badge. It was just one more on her quest to be the best. Smiling, she thanks Brawly for the battle, it was crazy but it was a new experience and rather fun!


	9. Chapter 9

“I wanna go on that”

Khris looks to Sally with disbelief. Really? She wants to go to some abandoned facility in the middle of the ocean when she has a job to do?

Sometimes his friend is very. . . exhausting. She never intentionally means it but she is just so off the wall. Arceus. He hopes she’s been taking her ADHD medication. Maybe they need to visit a mart to make sure it's been properly refilled. . . or maybe she’s just too damn excited. It’s hard to tell sometimes.

“Don’t give me that face.” Sally huffs. The redhead blinks, unaware he made any sort of face at all. “Just think of all the cool Pokemon that could be living in such a cool place!!”

That was true. An abandoned facility like this would make for an interesting ecosystem.

And so, that was how the two found themselves on Sea Mauville after convincing Mr. Briney to let them look around for an hour or two. It might be less given the circumstances and condition of the building — half of the building was tilting into the water after all.

Sally seems to disregard that all together and quickly scampers off to inspect some plant life that managed to grow on the surface of the facility. Maybe she would be lucky enough to find some berries that could help her in contests.

Khris, on the other hand, decides to investigate the inside of the building. It takes some work as the only entrance is tilted at an odd angle and, unfortunately, as soon as he enters the building he loses his footing on the steep hill. He proceeds to tumble down the hill and lands face first into the water filling half of the haul.

Unmoving, Khris stays like that for several moments. He wasn’t hurt, but he was taking the moment to observe some of the sea life in the water. There weren’t many different types from what he could tell, but there seemed to be a large abundance of Wailmers and Tentacools. The size and shapes seemed to tell that much. He would have loved to make proper observations, but his glasses fell off his face when he tumbled down hill and that was a problem.

Khris pulls his face from the water with a loud gasp before pulling Maya’s pokeball from his belt. His Mudkip immediately submerges herself in the water, only showing her tiny beady eyes and fin to her trainer.

“I lost my glasses. Can you be a dear and look for them Maya?” He asks of her. His Mudkip croaks in affirmation and dives under the water. Maya loyally returns in a matter of seconds, Khris extends his hand to take his belongings back from his pokemon. . .but what Maya deposits into his hand is not his glasses, but instead an old rusted key with the number two carved into it. Before he could question his pokemon’s actions she dived under the water once more. Khris looks between the spot she surfaced and the key in his hand.

He couldn’t help but feel. . . curious about this. . .

Who would leave a key here? What could it be used for?

He’s pulled from his thoughts when Maya resurfaces once more, this time with his glasses in her mouth. Smiling, Khris thanks his pokemon and then climbs onto dry land on the inclined surface in order to dry them. Maya faithfully follows him, watching him pull a clean cloth from his rather resistant backpack with her tiny beady eyes.

With the lense cleaned up, Khris pushes his glasses back into place and tucks the cloth back in his bag. As he does so, he notices there are numbers on the doors in the hallway. That could only mean the key Maya found must open one of these doors. Suddenly feeling excited, Khris begins to scale the slanted hallway in order to reach the room with a big number two on it.

Firmly grasping the doorknob in one hand, he shoves the key into the lock. To his joy, it really does fit. However, once the door is unlocked the key snaps in the lock.

“Welp.” He dryly comments. He can’t do much about that.

Thankfully, this room was not flooded since it was closer to the entrance than the water but it was still tilted, which made it a mess to maneuver around. Khris awkwardly clomps around to the desk across the room. The surface is dusty and decorated with some cobwebs due to how much time has passed since it was abandoned but there are some things of interest.

A few old yellowed papers with hasty handwriting and a medium sized wood box. Inside the box was a light blue and white handheld scanner and by fooling around with it Khris found that both the antenna and scanner still worked. . . but whatever the scanner was supposed to scan and locate was a bit of a mystery.

Khris shifts his attention over to the papers. The writing was pretty bad — like hastily written chicken scratch — and age made it even more difficult to read. All he was able to gather from the papers that the scanner was supposed to find some jewels. . . which are apparently cursed or something. Flipping a sheet over, he finds the words ‘DO NOT’ in big text. This was more than likely implying disturbing these jewels was a pretty awful idea and no one should do it.

Khris glances over his findings once more before he decides to stow them in his bags. Better with him than with some loon that’s out to screw things up.

Like his dad.

God. Thinking about that man but pisses him off sometimes. He’s completely ignorant and utterly idiotic and thoughtless of others. If he could, he’d punch that bastard right in his-

Khris stops before the cracked door, his hand inches from the doorknob. For a moment he thought he was imagining things, but by straining his ears, he could hear people talking. . . and Sally definitely wasn’t one of them.

“Graah! Where is that stupid component?” That was a male’s voice without a doubt.

“Look harder. . .” The woman’s voice was very. . . robotic and downright creepy. He can hear the man grumble and the woman’s footsteps move in a different direction but the male’s is coming closer to him. Khris curses under his breath and his hand rests on his bag. The scanner must be the component these people are looking for . . . Just his luck, huh. . . .

Damn it. He can’t move.

Judging by the conversation, it sounds like they’ve been here for a while and so they would notice the door is cracked when it obviously wasn’t before. If he attempted to close the door it would most likely creek. Khris glances over to Maya. Sensing his apprehension, she looked quite serious now.

The footsteps were coming closer to him. Khris kneeled down to invite his pokemon onto his shoulder. Maya effortlessly jumps on and prepares a water gun for the approaching person.

“Huh? Why is this door open?” Slowly, the door creaks open. Khris clenches his fists, scrambling to organize a plan. Really, he just had to bullshit his way out of this, didn’t he?

Finally, the door opens at full reveal a short stout man with brown cowlick and squinted eyes that expressed surprise despite their closed state. Khris glances at his clothes and makes a face of disgust. This guy was dressed in a red-pink coat lined with black — under his short sleeve coat and matching shorts — he was wearing some red heat insulated suit. Along with this bizarre outfit was a pair of red-pink boots that reached his knees and gold knuckles and red-pink gloves.

what a fashion disaster

“What the hell?! Who the hell are—?!”

Maya unleashes her attack — shooting a powerful stream of water in the man’s face. The man makes a garbled sound as he takes a mouth full of water and he stumbles backwards in an attempt to get away from the water. However, he slipped on the wet inclined floor, causing him to slide downwards and shortly after that, there was a distant splashing sound indicating that the man fell in the water.

Well.

That’s one down.

He should find Sally and split. There’s no point to expose her to danger and thugs like that guy are not the kinds of people he wants to deal with anyway.

Khris hastily makes his climb to the entrance but it’s way harder, given it’s the top of the inclination. Despite the trouble it gives, he perseveres and breaches the entrance to reach the surface level of the platform. . .

Only to find another oddly dressed person standing around. Khris really wants to punch whoever made these uniforms because they’re fucking awful. This woman isn’t even wearing a proper jacket. He isn’t even sure what to call this . . . mess.

Regardless, the woman has her hood up, showing that it has horns. Maybe it’s some status symbol? Like the male, she was wearing a heat resistant suit of sorts under her coat, however, it only went halfway down her upper thighs.

She was wearing a pair of red gauntlets, trimmed with gold, and both had a pair of red-pink and black gloves attached to them. Additionally, her boots had black knee guards and were made from the heat resistant material and had red-pink heels.

However, Unlike the man, this woman is actively doing nothing but staring into the distance with a blank expression.

“She’s doing nothing. . . Berry picking. . .” The woman laughs lightly. Khris goes pale, realizing she’s watching Sally. Rather abruptly, the woman spins around to face him. Her expression is blank and rather robotic, just like her voice. “So. . . you’re the Rattata scurrying around on board. . .” She giggles once more, stepping closer to Khris and stares at his face for several moments.

“. . .Hahaha. ♪” She beams, a smile suddenly breaking across her face. “Cute.” Surprisingly, she steps aside and motions the path off the platform, partially submerged in water. “Leave.” Her smile is gone and the blank face is back. Khris looks between her and the path several times. The strange woman makes no motion to move or pull out a pokeball.

Cautiously, Khris drags his feet over to the path and for that entire duration their eyes are connected until rounding the corner prevents further eye contact. Khris hastily makes his way down the path, where Sally was collecting the last of the berries on a mangrove.

“Oh hey Khris!” She grins. Khris silently sighs in relief to see she’s not hurt. “I’m all done collecting berries!”

“Good, we should get going then.” He quickly instructs and before she can object, he adds. “We can’t leave Mr. Briney waiting all day.” Sally lets out a loud exaggerated sigh but she condeeds with her friend’s order. He’s more than glad that Sally didn’t make such a fit about his command.

He places a hand on Sally’s shoulder to hurry her as they cross the sandbar to the small island that Mr. Briney docked his boat. It could be perceived as him trying to make sure she didn’t fall into the water but honestly, he was concerned. Why did those people need the Scanner he found? Why did that woman let him go? It didn’t make any sense but as long as he was out of here he would be fine.

The two pre-teens greet the old man as soon as they climb onto his ship. He returns the greeting and immediately gets to the helm of the ship. It seems like the old man was more than eager to leave this place. Thankfully, there was no trouble or any sort of problem as they left the platform and it wasn’t long before that structure was becoming smaller and smaller.

Khris couldn’t help but sigh at all that happened within thirty minutes.


	10. Chapter 10

It took about a day and a half to reach Slateport City after the misadventure on that platform out in the middle of the sea.

Once Mr. Briney’s ship was safely docked at the beaches of Slateport he exchanged numbers with the two pre-teens and proceeded to inform them that from this point on he would be ferrying people about on his boat. It made sense, given that the tunnel that once connected Rustboro and Verdanturf was destroyed and now the use of boats or pokemon (that knew how to surf or fly) was the only way to get to the other side of the region now.

The old man remarked he would charge people to use his ferries but, both Sally and Khris would be allowed to ride for free since he felt he owed so much more to Sally for saving his beloved Peeko. The girl stammered, trying to say she only did the right thing, but the man said otherwise and wished the two of them good luck for whatever endeavors they chose to do. Then the old man took his leave on his boat.

In the afternoon sun, they waved their goodbyes until they could no longer see him. They stood side by side for several long moments before Sally suggested a beach party. Under normal circumstances Khris would have rejected the idea but he’s still weary about that encounter he had on that platform and there’s the fact that neither Peter and Zippy haven’t been out of their pokeballs in a while.

They changed into their bathing suits at the Seashore House and locked their goods in a rented locker the owner offered to them. Sally bolted out the door laughing, her pokemon -- with the exception of Kenshin -- followed after her with matching enthusiasm. As usual, Khris was pretty calm about things, although most of his pokemon were excited and following after Sally with impressive speed.

A visit to the beach was no simple time with Sally but Khris wouldn’t want it any other way. She may be a loose canon at times but she always means well with her exuberant ways. Maybe she offered the beach party in the first place to cheer him up. Maybe she noticed he was stressed and bothered by what happened.

As he splashed a wave of water into Sally’s face with a loud cheerful laugh, he finally felt like he was his age for the first time in a while.

* * *

When they return to the Seashore House the sun has set and they’ve settled on eating some sashimi for the night. Sally lets out a sigh and rests her head on his shoulder, exhausted from all the fun and a full stomach. Khris laughs a little, patting her head affectionately.

“Hey I got a question barkeep,” Another patron asks from across the shack with a shout. “What’s with all the media around here lately?” The owner of the voice was some woman with long blonde hair with black streaks. She was wearing a pair of black pants and a blue bikini top under a black leather coat with a picture of a Minum and silver studs on the lapels. Even if she looked like a delinquent Khris could hardly understand why she would be shouting so much if she’s here with both her husband and child. She’d probably wake her kid up with such a loud voice.

“Ah, I suppose you haven’t heard since you moved to Verdanturf when your kid was born.” The man responds just as loud. The child in question has not woken up from his nap in his father’s arms. Maybe he’s used to the sound. “They reopened the Slateport Contest Hall.” That woke Sally up. She suddenly sat upright and looked attentive. “And that Idol Lisia is going to christen it tomorrow afternoon.” There are stars in Sally’s eyes. Oh boy. She’s excited now. “The markets are having all sorts of sales because of her, mostly for stuff related to Pokemon Contests.” She’s vibrating now.

She cannot be stopped now.

“Reopening the contest hall, huh?” The woman ponders, sitting criss cross on the tatsumi mats with her arms crossed.

“Thinkin’ bout pickin’ it up again hun?” Her husband asks. He looks as much of a delinquent as she is and like someone you don't wanna run into at night. He’s dressed just like her, his own leather jacket with studs on the lapel, but instead of a Minum he has a Plusle on his jacket, and he’s wearing a pair of red swim shorts.

“Huh? Well, maybe. But I’d hate to leave my two boys home alone.” She sighs but a smile spreads across her face. “Barkeep, they openin’ up more Contests Halls?”

“Yep, all of the previously closed buildings are reopening. And now, any ranked contest can be held at them.”

“Haha, alright, that sounds pretty damn cool!” The woman laughs, slapping her knee.

“Mama, I wanna travel with you and papa though!” Their child pipes up. The kid hardly looks disgruntled, as if to imply they were never asleep in the first place. The mom seems not to care about this. She turns around and squishes her child’s face in her hands.

“Is that so little man? Maybe I can talk it out with your daddy!” The child giggles and flails his little feet in excitement. The woman reaches for her wallet to place the money for the bill on the table top. “Thanks for the meal barkeep.” The woman grins. With her husband and child in tow, they decide to leave, leaving only the two pre-teens and the shack owner in the building.

Sally is still vibrating in her seat with excitement. However, before she could explode, Khris reminds her she has a job to do before she can go shopping in the morning and possibly catch Lisia at the contest hall; Delivering the Devon Parts to Captain Stern.

When Sally admits she did forget that Khris makes a note to himself to pick up a planer and a notebook for Sally. He can't always be the one to remind her of these important things to do.

* * *

“I wanna see the museum tho.”

“Use proper English, please.” Khris sighs in response to Sally’s whining. Despite reminding her to deliver the goods as soon as possible so she could do what she wanted, Sally insisted on visiting the Oceanic Museum _now_. However, it seems that would have to wait. There was an incredibly long line of pirates waiting to get inside the building. The expressions on their faces were very varied, as were the things they said;  
  


> _“Why are we even lining up and paying? We should just march in!”_
> 
> _“Hey, you there! Don't butt in!”_
> 
> _“Quit pushing! There’s a line, can't you see?”_
> 
> _“A long line, huh? It reminds me of the times I lined up to buy smash-hit games. . .”_

  
“Stupid lousy goddamn pirates.” Sally hisses, clutching the silver briefcase containing the Devon Parts rather tightly.

“Let’s just go to the shipyard.” Khris offers. "Maybe the line will ease up by the time we come back." Sally sighs, letting her shoulder droop.

“Yeah, I guess. . .” Reluctantly, Sally tracks backwards to the shipyard. Inside the building is loud and many people are at work. Heavy machinery moves supplies and necessities about, mostly to the most right half of the building -- that was off to the public -- where they were working on a ship. So far, progress was only the basic skeleton and the steel outer layer of the ship.

To the far top right corner of the first floor was a man in a jumpsuit by a computer and several blueprints. Sally walks up the desk the man is working at. Just as she’s about to speak to him, the man lets out a loud sigh.

“If this goes here, and that goes over there. . .” The man trails off, questioning where two other parts would go in that case. With a deep sigh, rubs his eyes before resting the heels of his palm over his eye sockets.

“Uhm, excuse me sir?” The man lifts his head from his hands to face Sally, confusion clear on his face.

“Oh, sorry.” He apologizes rising to his feet and offering a hand to Sally. She shakes his hand with a smile. “I’m Dock.”

what a name

“Hello, I’m Sally. I have these parts from Devon.” The man blinks and his face lights up.

“Really? That’s great!” However, the man’s smile fades slowly. Awkwardly, he rubs the back of his neck with another loud sigh. “Sorry, but those aren’t any good for me. . . Captain Stern commissioned me to draw designs for a ferry. I’m sorry to ask this but can you deliver the parts to him personally? He’s probably in the Oceanic Museum again. . .”

Sally shoots Khris a passive aggressive look to express her annoyance that he suggested it was a bad idea to go to the museum. He holds his hands up in defeat, but not before commenting she wouldn’t have known if Captain Stern was there had she not come to the boatyard first. Sally huffs but accepts his defeat.

On the return to the museum, Sally notices two things. One, the pirates are gone. Two, the building has a Wailmer shaped dome on top. She laughs at the latter. It's silly and cute!!

Once they enter the building a receptionist greets the two of them and informs them of the fifty yen fee -- per person -- they must pay in order to get in. Maybe that’s why it took those dang pirates so long to get in. The two pre-teens easily pay for their entrance fee and begin to look at all the exhibits the museum has to offer. Strangely, most of the pirates were looking at the exhibits with adoration and sparkling eyes. Sally decided to believe the pirate costumes weren’t just for show, but because they really really liked the ocean.

Well if that’s their thing then who was she to protest. . .?

Then again, the museum was an interesting looking place, it showcased many exhibits of interest, from showcasing buoyancy to the pressures water can exert. There were many neat facts and information to read over as well. However, for the moment, the two friends decide to part ways. Khris decides to observe some of the fossil and water samples from other regions, while Sally heads up stairs with the silver briefcase containing the Devon Goods.

On the second floor Sally found a scaled model of the Hoenn region. She couldn’t help but ponder where Littleroot was on this thing. There was also a model of the ship that was currently being built at the shipyard at the moment. It looked rather cool to her but the real thing clearly needed a lot more work to look as cool as the model.

Sally passes a couple display cases showing the flow of seawater on upper and lower levels of the sea, then to the center of the room little theater section with small plush seats -- obviously this was some part of the tour for children to enjoy -- and lining the opposite side of the room were several display cases with models of sea vessels. Some ships, a deep sea probe and a submarine.

Among the models is a man in a man with black hair and oval glasses. He was dressed in a white lab coat, a dark green sweater, jeans and shiny black shoes.

He’s. . . probably the Captain. . . Right?

. . .

Probably.

As she approached the man she recalled how one of those pirates mentioned that their boss still wasn’t here yet. So this couldn't be some pirate associated person.

Geez.

What a terribly organized team. . .

“Hello sir!” Sally greets bouncing over to the man.

“Yes?” He greets Sally with a kind smile.

“So, are you Captain Stern? I have a delivery to make!” Grinning, Sally lifts up the silver case to the man.

“Oh! Those must be the parts I ordered from Mr. Stone at Devon.” The man smiles, accepting the briefcase from the girl. Sally doesn’t get the chance to see what is inside the case as the adult takes a quick glance into it. Whatever it is, it’s exactly what he needed seeing how he smiles before shutting the case. “Thank you for bringing the case all this way. Now we can prepare for our expedition at last!”

“It’s no problem!” Sally grins. However, her grin fades as she hears the clomping of boots rapidly approaching her and . . “Oh no. It’s the pirates!” She exclaimed in horror as two of the pirates ran right up to her and the Captain.

“H-Hold up a moment!” One wheezes as he attempts to catch his breath. Sally awkwardly stands there as she lets the man pull himself together. Once he’s ready, he thanks Sally and proceeds where he left off. “We’ll be taking those!”

“Wh-Who are you people?!” The Captain demands, clutching his briefcase to his chest to defend it.

“We’re Team Aqua!” The pirate proudly informs them. “Our boss wants the parts in that case, so shut ya trap and fork ‘em over!”

“No.” Sally glares. “I didn’t spend so much time to safely transport these parts just for some pirate to steal them!”

“Okay. Wow. That’s just rude.” The Team Aqua grunt mutters crossing his arms. His companion nods his head sagely. “Completely uncalled for. I told you I am a member of Team Aqua! I’m not a pirate.”

“You’re dressed like one.”

“Doesn't mean I _am_ one!” Silence hung in the air for several moments. Sally crosses her arms with a huff.

“True. . .” The group of individuals awkwardly stand around for several moments, suddenly not sure what to do. Sally decides to alleviate this by swinging one of her legs. Her foot hooks around the ankle of one of the grunts and gives a quick tug in order to make the surprised man to hit the floor. She then proceeds to sit on them and looks the other man in the eye. “Your move, buster.”

“You can't do that!” The grunt screams in horror at the fact that this child was sitting on his friend.

“Too late. I already did it.” Sally responds without skipping a beat. The grunt makes some sort of strangled sound of aggravation as he tosses out a pokeball. Sally finds herself to be blinking with huge confused eyes when she sees the man’s pokemon. For a team called ‘Team Aqua’ she wasn’t expecting a Poochyena, but given that most water pokemon could not walk on land this was the best he could do.

She shuffles through her pokemon to find Mirabelle and her precious kitty pokemon takes the stage. She proceeds to bounce over to the Poochyena and slaps the enemy across the face twice before Poochyena counter attacks. The bite pokemon sinks its teeth into Mirabelle’s backside and shakes her around like a toy. Sally watches in horror as her companion is thrown aside and hits the wall.

“No! Mirabelle!!” She yells in horror but her Skitty is sturdy and still willing to fight. Mirabelle leaps forward and lets out a loud charming sound. The sound seems to impact with the enemy and the Poochyena proceeds to curl up and lay on the floor, unwilling to do anything else. The grunt tries to get his pokemon to do something -- anything -- but it refuses to get up.

Apparently. . . it just forfeited the battle? 

Well, whatever happened, Sally won the battle.

“I win.” She comments with a smile on her face.

“That’s bullhockey! You cheated!” The grunt accuses. Sally loudly gasps, utterly scandalized by such an accusation.

“Did not!”

“Of course you did! You did something to my Poochyena!”

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you loons can't recognize a ‘Disarming Voice’ attack. It emotionally compromised your pokemon so it lost the will to fight.” The two grunts look to the staircase in shock and they begin to sweat as the strange man standing there approaches them with an amused grin on his face.

The tanned man is wearing a navy wetsuit -- which has lines of white on its sides -- for some reason the wetsuit has a huge popped collar and a deep V neckline that showed his muscular pecs. Sally wasn’t sure what to feel about that but it kept getting weirder. He was wearing a large gold anchor on big gold chains around his neck. There was an odd and bulky gold belt around his waist and attached to it was a very odd cape of sorts. Probably the weirdest thing was the footwear on the wetsuit, it looked like it had. . . retractable flippers or something built into them.

These Team Aqua people really like water. . .

The man looks to the grunt Sally is still sitting on and raises a brow.

“What do we have here?”

“She. . . tripped me sir.” The poor grunt mutters. Sally crosses her arms and gives the man a glare. He laughs, rather loudly. It’s not mad or malicious. It’s more. . . generally amused.

“That's quite a fierce expression for such a wee little scamp.” Sally tries to maintain her serious expression but, she can't help but notice that this one guy isn’t using some pirate talk. Even those grunts stopped when she threw off their groove.

It really was an act, wasn't it?

“That face tells me you're not just another mindless Trainer brat.” She casually shrugs. Well, he’s kinda right on that. She’s not a mindless trainer.

She’s more of a mindless. . . hobo?

Maybe.

“I don't really know what I wanna do. Contests? Battles? I donno man.” The man kneels down in order to look her right in the eye as he spoke. Strangely, his eyes looked very understanding of her situation.

“Ah. You’re still young, don't fret about it scamp.” The man decides to rest his head against his knuckle. Was this his signal of being casual with her and not stress things out? “But this is also an important age for you to realize something. You do know that Pokémon, people, and all life in this world depend on the sea for life?” 

“Yeah, it’s part of the reason why my friend is researching environments so much.” The man grins at this bit of information. He gives her a playful nudge before his face grows serious once more.

“Smart friend you have. The sea is an irreplaceable treasure for every living thing on this planet! But with our selfish extravagance, humanity dirties the great ocean, destroying this source of all life. . . Day by day, we're all destroying our most precious resource! If we humans suffer from our actions, well, maybe we'll end up getting what we deserve.” The man pauses, suddenly looking rather forlorn about something.

“But what about the Pokemon in our world? The Pokemon that no longer have a place to live because we stole and soiled their seas? The Pokemon that won’t have a place to raise their young and watch them grow? We are creating a world in which innocent Pokemon suffer as a result of our actions.”

“Well, everyone suffers from things like that. Even the kids of the reckless adults that did bad things. . .” Sally sighs, kicking her legs about absentmindedly. The man was right about that. It was rare that things like broken and abandoned buildings, like that platform she and Khris visited, could make for a good environment for pokemon to live in.

There are many situations where that wouldn’t work out at all because they caused causing poisoned and polluted waters which in turn lead to both people and Pokemon dying because of someone else's dumb and careless actions.

What makes all of that worse was. . .

“That. . . but, Pokemon can't clean up those messes. They end up suffering more than anyone because they have to just. . . deal with it. . .” Man’s eyes twinkle in response to Sally’s words, as if he made a connection with her.

“Exactly, you get it scamp!” The man says with a hearty laugh. “And that is why I’ll return it all to unspoiled beginnings!”

“What.”

Oh man. Is this guy. . . is he trying to reset the environment or something? Was that even possible?

The man seems so giddy and happy in the moment that he completely misses Sally’s baffled expression because he’s standing up on his two feet once again and he’s finally introducing himself in a loud and cheerful voice.

“The name is Archie. The rough-looking lot you see here are members of my team -- Team Aqua!” He chuckles to himself and shakes his head. “It's not like me to talk so much, but, never mind that.” Suddenly, and rather dramatically, he points a finger at Sally. “Little scamp, I'll withdraw for now and leave you be. But understand this. . . Get in my way again, and you won't walk away unscathed next time.” A devilish and somewhat cruel grin crosses his face.

“Remember that, at least!” He turns to his two grunts, informing them they’re withdrawing from the location. Both males look to her expectantly, and she suddenly remembers she was sitting on someone. . . for at least ten minutes. Sally awkwardly climbs off the grunt and makes an attempt to apologize but the guy tells her that sitting on him actually made his back feel better so he could care less at the moment.

Well. . . okay then. . .

Sally glances to Mirabelle, who is comfortably sleeping on the floor with her body twisted about, and Captain Stern looks rather relieved.

“Thank you for that Sally,” The adult smiles. “You helped me out of quite a jam there! Who knows what would have happened if you weren't here to help me! Thank you, I must head to the shipyard immediately. Thanks to you, I finally have the parts we needed to finally make progress on the project!” The man thanks her one more time before quickly scampering off like an excited child.

* * *

“So, it really is you Khristopher?”

Oh god.

This was _NOT_ happening right now. There was no goddamn way he was here. A hand touches his shoulder and, reluctantly, Khris slowly turns around to be face to face with- Oh goddamn it. It _is_ him. Silently, Khris began to pray Arceus would strike him where he stood but after several moments, it was quite clear his prayer went unanswered.

There was absolutely no way he was dealing with this.

In this moment, he really wished he had his heelys because he would flip this asshole off as he wheeled right out of this museum. But storming off in a huff as he gave this GREAT **HUGE** asshole the bird would have to do for now.

“Hmm. What a rude child she’s raised. . .”

A sigh.

“I see she’s still useless without me.” 


	11. Chapter 11

By the time Sally left the museum herself, Khris was long gone. She didn’t really think about it or noticed it. If she did, she wouldn’t have thought much about it. He would most likely look over the sea life that lived close to the city, after all, that was just his style.

Sally is pulled from her thoughts as she catches her little Skitty skittering into a large crowd of people by the Contest Hall. Oh right! Lisia was supposed to be at the contest hall today. It would be cool to meet her but Mirabelle took higher priority at the moment.

“Hiiiiii, ev-er-y-bo-dy! ” Lisia beams, shooting peace signs at the audience. Positively beaming, the audience returns the greeting with much vigor.

Goodness, she was positively adorable, even more so in person.

She had two long turquoise curls framing her face, one longer than the other, and the rest of her hair was pulled back into a curly ponytail. In her hair was a blue tiara of sorts with a shining round stone that shines as brightly as her turquoise eyes. She was currently wearing her own Contest Coordinator costume, which fresh off the newest fashion line and customized to match her prized pokemon and partner, Ali the Altaria.

Her costume -- which was primarily made of blues and whites -- kept the choker and basic ribbon top. The straps were modified so that her costume only needed one and addition, she added a huge fluffy cloud like collar. Instead of the skirt she was wearing a pair of white shorts and small puffy cape, attached to her shorts with a puffy belt.

For an odd reason, she was wearing only one long white-blue long stocking on her left leg. On her feet were a pair of sky blue platform boots, trimmed in fluffy material and to finish off her outfit was a pair of fluffy arm warmers.

“Hello everyone one! Lisia here! My Altaria, Ali, and I have come to Slateport City's Contest Spectacular Hall to reintroduce the world of contests to this lovely city!!” Her Altaria responds with a happy chirp. Sally would really love to be paying attention, but at this point, she’s on her hand and knees searching through the crowd for her Skitty.

“Thanks to all of my fans and all those dreamers out there, the Pokemon League has made arrangements for brand new Contest Halls to open up all over the region!” The crowd cheers and claps wildly. Lisia smiles and bows her head while her partner pokemon chirps with delight. Ali nuzzles his head against his trainer’s face. Lisia giggles as she runs her fingers over his puffy cloud like body. With a smile, she faces the crows once more.

“I would like to take this chance to thank you everyone for your support! Traveling to Lilycove alone is hard for many young coordinators, but now, everyone really does have the chance to be an Idol!” Lisia is handed a pair of large scissors, presumably by the mayor of the humble city, and together they cut the ribbon with huge smiles on their faces as they officially open the brand new contest hall to the public. Camera’s flash wildly to capture the scene and people cheer without abandon. Once the necessary pictures are taken, the mayor takes the giant pair of scissors and takes a few steps back from the idol.

“Now, I hope everyone is ready for a little fun!” With a giggle, Lisia and Ali gracefully spin in place. Many people follow suit, spinning and chanting: “Dazzling! Dizzying!” However, for Sally, this just makes things a death trap for her. Some people step on her and she winces in pain but she will persevere in order to find her precious Mirabelle.

Lisia beams as she stops spinning herself and she strikes a pose to the camera for all her fans home to see. “Lisia's. . . Miraculous. . . Contest Scouting!”

“Start!” Some fan cheers from the crowd. The people roar in agreement, chanting the name of the idol and her beloved pokemon. Among the crowd there was a stray person asking for Lisia to scout them to be her next boyfriend. That was creepy and unnecessary Sally silently notes to herself before returning to her sear- THERE SHE IS. Mirabelle was just about to exit the crowd. She had to catch her fast before she got away and chaos happened. On all fours, Sally wildly chases after her beloved Skitty bumping into people.

“All righty!” Lisia giggles. “I'm going to bring another fantastic Trainer into the wild world of contesting!” Lisia points a single nail polished finger to the crowd, loudly chanting ‘eenie . . . meenie. . . miney. . .’ as she points out random people but she stops in her tracks as she notices a lone Skitty approaching her. The adorable kitten pokemon begins to purr with delight and rub her body against her leg. Lisia’s eyes shimmer with joy and absolute adoration for such a cute pokemon. She squeals with joy and captures the pokemon in a tight hug.

“Oh wow! This is such a cute Skitty!” She holds the pokemon out at arm length to give it a proper examination. The longer she looks at the cat the more her joy skyrockets. “Such clean and neat fur. It’s so shiny and silky too! What a lucky cutie you are! Whoever is your owner must love you very much sweetheart!” Mirabelle mewls excitedly in response. “Excuse me, who is the owner of this super cute Skitty?” People begin to mumble and look at each other, wondering who could be the mystery trainer when Sally’s voice suddenly comes from the depths of the crowd.

“Oh. Uh. That would be me!!” There is no way anyone could see her however, since she’s still on all fours and more or less pressed to the ground, thankfully, the people closest to her do hear her. However, the rest of the crowd looks about, wondering where did the voice come from, but -- thanks to the people next to her -- people awkwardly shuffle around to make room so she could stand up. Sally quickly jumps to her feet, trying to ignore the fact that everyone, even the TV cameras, were looking at her. The crowd parts and Sally laughs awkwardly as she approaches the idol.

“Mirabelle is my Skitty. . .” She coughs, opening her arms to her precious pokemon. Mirabelle happily leaps into Sally’s arms, purring with delight. “I hope she isn’t ruining anything. . .”

“Mirabelle?!” Lisia gasps, putting her hands on her cheeks with the most delighted expression she could make. “That’s just the cutest name I ever heard!!” Her smile continues to stretch across her face as she takes one of Sally’s free hands and shakes it with vigor. “And ruining the experience? Don't say such a ridiculous thing, you are absolutely perfect!! A model trainer with such wonderfully cared for pokemon!” Sally could almost see stars in Lisia’s eyes.

“Not only is this Contest Hall reopening, but a great and beautiful star has appeared before us all today! This is it everyone! A Sudden Encounter! Miraculous Contest Scouting!” People begin to cheer wildly, apparently they were all agreeing with Lisia’s assessment of Sally. The purple haired girl began to sweat a little. Did she really think that about her? “Tell me, what is your name?”

“Sally. . . U-um, Sally Banks. . .” Sally awkwardly fumbles. Lisia blinks before gasping loudly.

“As in Norman Banks?”

“Yeah. . .That’s my dad.” The crowd murmurs. Shocked that a gym leader’s daughter was here before them and was going to wow all of them with such skill and talent as a Pokemon Coordinator.

“Oh gosh! No wonder you have an eye for Pokemon! You’ve lived your whole life with such great and talented pokemon!” Lisia beams. “Well, Sally, are you ready?”

“Ready for what?” She awkwardly replies. She has no idea what’s actually happening. She was a little too focused on recovering her precious Skitty to really pay that much attention. Lisia simply giggles.

“To become a Star Coordinator! Today will be your first journey into the world of Pokémon Contest Spectaculars! As my very special friend, you win. . . A Contest Pass!” Lisia cheers, pulling a silver card out of seemingly nowhere. “But not any contest pass, a Silver Pass!! These usually cost a pretty penny for any coordinator! But that’s because of all the cool bonuses that come with it! They don't need to be re-registered every year and they provide coordinators and their pokemon with some special treats!!”

“Oh wow! Thank you so much!” Sally gasps, taking the card from the idol. Her eyes were practically glimmering with joy. This was one thing down on her quest to be a Coordinator. There were all kinds of supplies she would still need to make an efficient take off in the world of Contests but this was still a big help!

“But that’s not all!” Sally looks at the Idol like she’s gone mad. What else could she give her now? “A Pokeblock Kit! With this super cute kit, all you have to do is pop in four berries and it does all the work for you! Pokeblocks in a matter of seconds!!”

“No way! That’s incredible!” Pokeblock Kits were super expensive. It would have taken her forever to save up for even the cheapest one but now she’s getting one for FREE? Oh man. Could this day get even better?

“I bet you’re thinking, how could this day get any better? Well, I have a surprise for you! For your very first contest, you’ll get to debut in one of the newest Contest Coordinator costumes from the Cosmic Dreams fashion line.

“Ooooh my gooood!!” Sally exclaims in utter shock. “Is it really okay for me to have all that stuff. . .?” Lisia giggles, pinching Sally’s cheek.

“Aren’t you humble! Being a contest coordinator is a hard job! From allowing your pokemon to express their skills and talents in unique ways to getting the supplies needed to allow your pokemon to excel. It’s a challenge and it’s very expensive! I want to help coordinators get off their feet and make it into the stars! So, try your very best Sally! I believe in you!”

That said, she turns to the camera with a smile. She waves to her audience, Sally awkwardly follows in suit -- still shocked that this was actually happening to her -- and Lisia finishes off her show with a wink and peace sign. “And with that, It’s time to say goodbye my beautiful fans! Remember, Slateport, Verdanturf, Fallarbor and Lilycove are now all homes of Pokémon Contest Spectaculars! Shoot for the stars everyone, because I really want to see some new coordinators on the scene! See you all next time!”

The camera’s man gives Lisia the sign that she’s no longer on air. She thanks the man and with a hand on Sally’s shoulder she leads the girl into the building. Many fans and eager Coordinators follow in suit, excited to see this brand new contest hall.

The entrance made way to a long hallway, tiled floors sparkled and shimmered and the walls that were lined with multiple lights -- blue, red, yellow, green and pink -- each to represent the colors associated with a contest category. 

The hall led to a huge room, to the center was the reception desk where a few employees gladly waited to help Coordinators. On each side of the desk was a flight of stairs that lead to a second floor. On this floor were five empty photo frames, each color coordinated for a contest category, and waiting to be fitted with photos of the best ranking contestant. In addition there were two doors that lead to audience seating.

To the far right, back on the first floor, was a series of dressing rooms. Some were open to normal card rank holders, to silver card holders only and then there were single and personal dressing rooms for gold card rank holders like Lisia.

Lisia waved a final goodbye to her fans before sliding into her dressing room -- a still in shock Sally in tow -- and closed the door behind her. Once Sally is seated Lisia rushes to the wardrobe and starts to shift through the many costumes waiting inside.

Fumbling around for a moment or two, she finds the perfect one. Hours ago, it almost seemed like the color scheme would not fit anyone, but now, she knew for certain it would look wonderful on Sally.

The basics of the outfit was similar to her own, however the top made use of a pale purple X strap to loop around the neck, and had a pair of white elbow length sleeves with frills. A pale green bow with a purple oval brooch was centered on the top, the small pale purple coat attached to it was longer than average.

Unlike her outfit, this one had the full skirt, colored with pale green, fading into pale blue and finally pale purple. Under the skirt, was an additional layer of white material to make it puff out even more and a pair of pale blue shorts.

It was absolutely adorable and it would totally compliment Sally’s purple hair and eyes! All giddy and excited, Lisia threw the costume at Sally, who fumbled for it, as she rummaged through her makeup and hair styling tools. Combs and ribbons between Lisia’s fingers, her eyes sparkled as she was determined to make sure Sally signed bright as the biggest star today!

On the other hand, Sally was slowly returning to reality when the costume hit her in the face. Slowly, it fell from her face and into her lap. With the costume now in her grasp she looked it over. . .

It really was her own costume for contests. . .

It still hasn’t quite settled in how lucky she was. Honestly, it was still pretty crazy but. . . she was determined to do her best. She really wanted to give contests a try. They always looked so amazing and Lisia was certain she would do a good job. She couldn’t let her down!

“What’s your birth month by the way?” Lisia asks as she does something. . . at a makeup table across the room.

“April, why?” Lisia didn’t respond. Sally could hear that she was muttering something about diamonds. As to why was a bit of a mystery. Sitting back in the chair, Sally awkwardly looked to her feet. She would have to do something about her sneakers. They don't match this outfit at all . . .

* * *

Thanks to Lisia, the final touch ups for her debut consisted of pale blue lipstick, a pair of pale purple ribbon heels, a pale green choker around her neck and finally, pulling her curled purple hair into a ponytail with a matching pale green bow with a diamond center, and spraying her hair with a special glitter hairspray.

By the end of Lisia’s makeover, Sally almost looks like a different person. Well. Maybe not in a literal sense but, she never thought she could look so pretty. Not to say she thought she was unpretty or anything. . . To see herself dressed up. . . to be honest, it was a bit surreal.

Suddenly, Sally is yanked out of the chair and pulled out of Lisia’s dressing room. The idol brings her to the front desk where she proceeds to explain she needs to register her Contest Card if she’s going to use it, it was just a blank card at the moment since anyone could have won it. In order to register it under her name Sally presents the woman with her Trainer ID and with nimble fingers, it takes only minutes for the woman to complete her work.

“Thank you for registering Sally,” The woman smiles, returning the ID to the young woman. “Would you like to enter a contest today?”

“Oh yes! A cute contest with my Mirabelle!” On the mention of her name, the Skitty bursts from her pokeball and perches herself high on the counter, mewling with delight. The woman smiles, entering the data in the computer. She then reaches into a drawer to pull out a round pink sheet of paper with a big white number four on it.

“Your entry was accepted,” The woman smiles. “Your Entry Number is four! As a Silver Card owner, do you wish to use any special effects for your entry?”

“Special effects. . .?” Sally repeats out loud, confusion clear on her face.

“Oh, I never went into detail about that, did I?” Lisia giggles, lightly knocking herself on the head. “You can use Seals with your pokeballs to help boost your pokemon’s appeal. Video footage and pictures can be used too!”

“Oh! I have the perfect picture!” Sally exclaims, her eyes shining with delight but her shoulders droop in seconds. “But it’s in my bag. . .” Still smiling, Lisia reaches into the cloud-like body of her pokemon and pulls out Sally’s bag with a flourish. Sally’s eyes sparkle once more.

Thanking the idol, she reaches into her bag and pulls out a photo album. Sally had this book for many years since she was constantly moving around when she was younger. She wanted some way to preserve and remember things, so her mother made this small little photo album for her. Inside were some photos that would most certainly increase Mirabelle’s cute factor.

The woman smiles, accepting the photos with delicate care and motions for both Sally and her pokemon to enter the large blue door behind the front desk. Giddy, Sally hugs Mirabelle to her chest and makes her way through the door.

* * *

“Hello ladies and gentlemen!” The announcer greets as the stage lights up. The round stage was high off the ground to give everyone in the surrounding C shaped stands a good look at the action. To the back and the center of the stage was a giant TV screen with two tall but thinner screens that proceeded to project the announcer as she walked across the stage and waved to the screaming and delighted fans.

“Welcome to Slateport City’s Pokémon Contest Spectacular! Now, fans and trainers alike, are you guys ready to see some cute pokemon?!” The crowd roars, pumping their fists and waving their glow sticks around. “Then, let’s begin the Normal Rank Cute Contest!”

First on stage is a young lady following after a Gulpin. She’s wearing a simple white sundress, ribbon sandals and both she and her pokemon are wearing a beautiful crown of flowers on their heads.

“Here’s contestant number one! Liliana and Guligan, her Gulpin!” The members of the crowd cheers and wave their glow sticks to cast their votes for the young woman. She smiles and bows her head, before moving to the left stage.

“Contestant number two! Adeline and Win, her Wingull!” With a smile on her face and her pokemon on her shoulder, a little girl in a navy one piece swimsuit and white inner tube around her waist appears on stage. She raises her arm to greet the audience and her pokemon circles around, her for a few moments. Once she lowers her arm once more, her pokemon lands on her shoulder to nuzzle her cheek. The cute, delighted giggles seem to rile the crowd up. People loudly cheer and two people, presumably her parents, wave their glowsticks wildly. Smiling, the girl joins the other contestant to the left.

“Contestant number three, Laura and Whizz, her Whismur!” A rather excited woman runs on stage, she’s not dressed up in any way unique. She looked . . .like a rather excited mother. In her arms is her precious Whismur, who she affectionately rubs her cheek against. The pokemon looks shy and tries to hide it’s face from the audience by pressing against its trainer’s chest. The pokemon’s actions only garner more attention for it. The cheers for this pair are particularly louder than the other two. Smiling, the woman waves to the crowd before turning her attention back to her pokemon. She gives the small whisper pokemon a few soothing strokes as she walks to the right of the stage.

“And finally, contestant number four! Sally and Mirabelle, her Skitty!” The stage’s lighting dims just a bit causing the audience to whisper. Mirabelle bounces on stage, delightfully mewling. She proceeds to roll onto her back and twist her body about to find a comfortable position. Once she’s comfortable enough, she mewls once more and that’s when the giant center screen begins to project a series of pictures.

The very first picture is of young Sally in a white dress and a big pale green bow in her hair. She’s sitting on her knees, eyes are wide with wonder as she looks at Katherine, her mother’s precious Delicatty and the newly born Mirabelle. 

The photo following it is the young girl sitting on the couch with her mother, petting the small kitten pokemon.

There’s two more shots before the slideshow ends; Sally taking a nap with Mirabelle and the cat is tucked under her arm and curled close to her body. The last photo is a rather important one to Sally, the day she moved into Littleroot. Khris is sitting next to her in the grassy fields in the town, looking a bit excited and Mirabelle is in Sally’s lap, happy as she could be.

The lights reach the previous level of brightness as before and Sally comes out on stage, calling out the name of her beloved Skitty. Mirabelle immediately perks up and bounds over to Sally, leaping right into her open arms.

The crowd goes absolutely wild. Sally smiles as she watches everyone cheer for her precious pokemon, she’s pretty sure she can hear Lisia yelling the loudest from a booth on the second floor too. Overwhelmed, Sally kisses her pokemon’ head.

“Aren’t they the cutest?!” The announcer cheers once Sally walks to stage right. “But who will be the absolute cutest? There’s only way to find out!” The crowd cheers and with a smile, the woman motions to the giant TV screen. The screen is no longer displaying Sally’s photos, in their place are four photos -- one of each coordinator -- on the screen, the screen proceeds to bunch the four images together, shuffles, then lines them up in a horizontal line.

Sally beamed. She was listed first! That meant the audience loved Mirabelle and she received the most votes!

“That’s right! It’s time for the Talent Round! In five rounds, these wonderful pokemon will show us their cutest moves! Which coordinators will wow the crowd the most?”

Since Sally received the most votes in the introduction round, that meant she was to lead the talent round. The pokemon would perform some moves and the ones that got the audience’s attention the most would gain more points for that round and determine the order for the following turn.

Mirabelle gladly bounced center stage to wow the crowd with a disarming voice, immediately captivating the crowd by the cuteness that is her voice. Proud of herself, Mirabelle returned to Sally’s side as Guligan slowly moved to the front stage.

With the time it took to get in position, the crowd was waiting on bated breath for what possible cuteness this pokemon could bring. Guligan kept them waiting for a few more moments before performing an amnesia. The baffled and confused look on the pokemon made the crowd cheer.

Once Guligan returned to its trainer, Win flew across the stage to unleash a water pulse. It was a bit out of place being a move that was considered beautiful. . . but it was still generally liked and got some points but none close enough to make any real footing in the contest.

Finally, it was Whizz’s turn. The pokemon timidly took its place and, rather abruptly, let out a loud shout that startled Win, causing it to lose points in the process. Sally didn't quite understand why, but that move counted as a cute move and it sure wowed the people.

And with that, the first round finished, points were tallied up for that round and the lineup changed but Sally and Mirabelle remained in the first position slot. As the contest continued the other coordinators began to introduce props to enhance the cuteness of their pokemon. Sally waited until the last round to present her secret weapon.

She and Mirabelle took the stage together. Some people whispered, wondering what could be the duo’s final act. Sally rested on her knees before her pokemon and Mirabelle's eye began to twinkle as she watched the ribbon in Sally’s hair come undone. Sally smiled, carefully climbing back to her feet as she swayed the ribbon before her pokemon’s eyes.

“Use double slap.” Sally smiles. Mirabelle runs to the back of the stage and proceeds to run back to the front in a zigzag formation. The kitten pokemon leaps into the air and smacks her tiny paws against the ribbon with as much ferocity she could muster. Again and again, Mirabelle leaps into the air to smack at the ribbon with her tiny paws. The crowd goes absolutely wild, screaming and hollering as their glowsticks move so fast the colors blur among the crowd.

Sally releases the ribbon before the act gets too old for the crowd and the ribbon gently lands on Mirabell’s head. Delighted, the pokemon tries to pull the ribbon from her head, only to fall over on her side in the process.

People scream even louder.

Sally beams.

She’s got this in the bag.

And she was right. After that cute display none of the other contestants could surpass or even meet such a display of raw cuteness. Sally cradles Mirabelle, who carries her trainer’s ribbon in her mouth, in her arms, a huge dumb smile on her face.

“The Judges will give the final scores momentarily.” The announcer smiles. She motions to the four contestants and their pokemon. “But, let’s give a big round of applause for our contestants! They all have such cute pokemon and tried so hard today!” The crowd loudly agrees with the woman and the contestants wave back to the crowd, smiles on their faces. The room grows silent when a beep is heard. Newer fans of the contest world look around in confusion but the announcer simply smiles.

“It looks like our judges have made a decision,” The woman motions to the big tv screen to the center of the back wall. “Everyone, please look at the big screen!” Four long horizontal black bars are on the screen, to the left of each bar is a number corresponding with an entry number. A blue color -- the points from the introduction round -- begins to fill the black bars.

The introduction round is only worth a total of twenty-five points out of a hundred and Sally’s bar reaches the max. This was a good lead for her. Red -- points from the talent round -- began to fill the bars.

Guligan was surprisingly a hit with the judges and crowd, totaling in a twenty intro points, and sixty-seven talent points for a total of eighty-seven points overall.

Following Guligan was Win, but just like their introduction points, Win’s talent fell rather short causing them to come in at a total of only thirty points. That, unfortunately, was the lowest score on the board.

Whizz’s blue point score was better than Win’s but not better than Guligan’s. The whisper pokemon received fifty points for their talent round, giving them a grand total of sixty-eight points.

Sally’s grow wide as she watches the computer calculate her score. Not only did she receive full points in her intro, but in the talent portion as well. She had a grand total of one hundred points. She received full marks in her very first contest. Slowly, it begins to sink in that she’s _won_.

The three other scores vanish from the screen to display the winner’s -- her score -- for all to see as the words ‘congratulations’ appear in big text. Accompanying the score are two pictures, one of Mirabelle and the other was Sally, one each on one of the thinner screens positioned to the sides of the larger display.

Sally stands still in stupefied shock as the crowd cheers and the other contestants clap for her. She can't seem to figure out what to next and her legs are unable to move. Thankfully, Laura gives her a gentle nudge and motions with her head to the center of the stage. Sally returns to center stage, Mirabelle still cradled in her arms. The announcer smiles, greeting her with a handshake and pats Mirabelle on the top of her head.

“Let’s hear it for Sally and Mirabelle! The winners of the Normal Rank Cute Contest!!” The crowd cheers as loud as they possibly can, chanting the name of the winner and her pokemon. Sally smiles, a bit nervously, and waves back to the crowd. A young man walks on stage, joining the young women, carrying a white pillow in his hands. The young man smiles, presenting the pillow and the prize resting on it to Sally.

Being the prize for a Normal Rank contest, the ribbon had the simplest design out of all four ranks, for it was a single round gold pin decorated with two short pink ribbons. Sally thanks the man and playfully places the ribbon on Mirabelle’s head. Mirabelle mewls, trying to pull the ribbon from her head and give it a nibble.

“Congratulations on winning Sally! Is there anyone you would like to thank?” Sally ponders that for a few moments. Besides her family, who else should she thank?

. . .

Ah! Of course!!

“Well, I would like to thank my family! They’re all so supportive and, Katherine, my mother’s Delicatty, for giving birth to my cute little partner, Mirabelle!” The kitten pokemon looks up at the mention of her and her mother’s name. Sally smiles.

“I would like to thank my friend Khris and his family too! His parents were very supportive too and they gave me a wonderful best friend who I traveled with to get to Slateport City. . .”

“A-Also, I want to say thank you to a lady named Franny by Rustboro City! She gave me a lot of advice and help when I first began my adventure. . . Oh! And Mr. Briney for boating me and Khris here! Lisia too! She believed in me!” Grinning, Sally lifts Mirabelle high into the air above her head to show off her prize ribbon. “Thank you for all your help Lisia! Today, a star really was born!”

* * *

Upon exiting the contest theater things were a bit crazy for Sally.

The woman at the front counter smiles at her, presenting her with a rectangular box -- four inches tall. The bottom half of the case was purple and the white top was decorated with a silver insignia for pokemon contests. Opening the box reveals two compartments waiting inside, however, these are actually three layer trays that slide out of the compartments with ease.

With a box like this, Sally had more than enough space to store all of her contest ribbons and any additional ribbons she could come into ownership of. Smiling, Sally placed her very first ribbon into one of the trays and closed the box.

Just as she’s about to make her way to the dressing rooms she’s suddenly surrounded by so many . . . fans?

These are most likely fans.

They’re chattering, congratulating her and offering her gifts -- ranging from casual items, flowers and berries -- and some are asking for her autograph. She’s still not certain how to deal with all this attention but she accepts the items and autographs the requested items presented to her.

This turns out to be a huge mistake as she’s overwhelmed by more people wanting autographs, but thankfully, Lisia saves her.

“Helloooo everybody!” She smiles, waving to the crowd. The people go wild once more. Lisia wraps an arm around Sally’s shoulder, not breaking her smile or taking her eyes off the crowd. “Thank you so much for supporting my dear friend Sally, but we need to get moving! I’m sure we’ll see each other again!” And Lisia bolts for the nearest dressing room, dragging Sally along with her.

They weren’t alone at the moment, but neither of them seemed to notice or care. Lisia gave Sally a large abundance of praise and cheer for her work on stage. Before the idol took her leave, she smiled and informed Sally that she would like to perform against her one day, on the same stage. Sally was completely stupefied. She simply stood, frozen in place, and with such shock that her jaw was hanging there for several moments before a young lady trotted over to her, a smile on her face. In the woman’s arms was female Pikachu, judging by the heart shaped notch on her tail -- which had a black heart-like pattern to it.

The most interesting thing was actually what the pokemon was wearing. A blue southern belle gown, the skirt was cut into a V formation and lined with white lace to reveal a pale yellow layer underneath.

On the pokemon's head was a white bonnet trimmed with gold and holes for its ears to slide through and in addition, positioned to the right was a flower-like bow decorated with an oval cut sapphire and a decorative feather. A blue ribbon was used to keep the bonnet in place and it was attached to a big white bow that had a baguette cut sapphire in the center.

Sally quietly gasped as she noticed the pokemon was wearing little shoes too. Cute little white shoes decorated with blue roses.

It was absolutely precious!

“I see you already love cosplay Pikachu.” The woman smiles. “I saw your performance from the TV.” She motions behind Sally and the girl turns around to notice a tv screen attached to the wall, above the makeup tables. “You and some wonderful people helped inspire me! I was finally inspired and able to complete this costume.” Sally glances back to the Pikachu, who looks up to her with big eager and sparkling eyes. “Pikachu really loved your performance. She seems to be very eager to follow you. So, would you be willing to take care of her?”

“Oh yes! She’s so pretty!” Sally beams, taking the Pikachu into her arms and giving her a hug. “She deserves a pretty name, like Anna Marie! Do you like that?” The Pikachu makes a delighted sound and cuddles up to Sally. “Oh, but, who gave you inspiration?” The young woman laughs, a bit nervously and motions to the dresser in the back corner of the dressing room.

There were two boys; a boy with a dark complexion and navy hair, who was wearing. . . a rather fancy southern belle dress. Well, as odd as it was, Sally couldn’t deny that he did look good in it and the hat looked pretty nice on him as well.

The other boy had a tanned complexion and dark red hair. On top of a black shirt with a glittering star pattern and a yellow tie around his neck, he was wearing a red jacket with silver studs on the coat's lapel and cuffs. Around his waist was a reflective red belt with a long silver chain attached to it. To complete this outfit was a pair of long black pants and red boots.

Sally stared blankly at the second boy. Something about him was familiar. . 

Wait.

Was that?

“Khris?” The boy suddenly looks in her general direction, obviously blind as a Zubat, and she realizes it really is her friend. “Oh geez! What are you doing in that?”

“My shit dad was here. I ran into the Contest Hall when no one was looking. I’ve been here ever since.”

“I thought he was dead.” Sally responds without skipping a beat. Khris lets out a loud sigh, throwing his weight back. His backside collides with the closet door and he limply slides to the floor, as if he was defeated already.

“I wish.” He mumbles. “I mean, he’s always been dead to me and I never thought I’d run into his ugly mug.” It wasn’t often Sally saw Khris break his ‘cool and professional’ persona, but what would get to him was the idea of his dad apparently. Sally doesn’t really know much about this man, whoever he is. What she does know is that he’s an awful person and his mother ran away from him when Khris was only a baby. Additionally, one of his pokemon belonged to that man. As much as Khris disliked him, he would take care of the pokemon given to him, because it was his.

“Bummer.” Sally responds taking a seat next to him on the floor. Khris merely groans and starts to lean against her body. Anna Marie crawls into his lap in order to provide some comfort. Khris gladly takes it by petting the pokemon’s backside with long strokes. She glances over to the boy in the southern belle dress. “Who’s that by the way?” Khris spares a glance at the guy before sliding lower and into Sally’s lap. One hand clutches the Pikachu to his chest and the other points to the guy in question.

“That’s Cornelius. He’s a part of the shit dad club with me.”

“Yeah,” Cornelius greets with a smile, which quickly fell from his face. “My old man, just, dragged my ass out here for no reason. . .” A sigh escapes him. “He thinks I’m just so eager to pick up his little group once he’s old enough so he drags me around to show me his work. Jokes on him. I don't give a fuck about his work.” He picks up a white plastic bag lying on the floor and tosses it to Khris. “Heads up.”

The bag proceeds to land on his head but he’s not making any move to get it so Sally collects the bag in his stead but stops as she catches a glimpse of what’s inside it. She lets out a loud, exaggerated gasp as she pulls a tall rectangular box from the bag. It was a figure. But it was not any kind of figure. It was a figure of the Hoenn Representative of Soul Chamber.

Wait.

Khris doesn’t even believe in Soul being a legit thing. . . so why does he have this. . .?

“It was the last one you needed for your collection.” Khris speaks up, as if he knew what she was thinking about. “As I was running away I slipped into the market when I saw that figure. So I bought it.” Sally smiles, wrapping her arms around her friend’s neck. It was a bit of an awkward hug but neither of them seemed to mind it

“Thank you Khris! But. . . can you hold onto it for a little longer?” Sitting upright, he gives her an odd look but Sally simply smiles. “I want to do some more contests! Until I finish them up, can you watch the figure for me?” Khris blinks at the look on his friend's face. She’s been excited for things before, but this was completely different. Sally looks. . . absolutely enamored by the idea of contests and she’s. . . radiating with joy.

“Sure. . .yeah.” He mumbles. Sally smiles once more. She wraps her arms around her friend and presses a kiss on his cheek before bolting to the door.


	12. Chapter 12

“You know, I don't think I’ve ever seen Kenshin so calm like he was on stage.” Khris comments as the duo make their way to the Pokemon Club.

“Me either.” Sally sighs. “Maybe he just likes to show off more than fighting. . .”

“It seems like the case.” Khris smiles. “Like people, pokemon have preferences on how they want to spend their time.” Sally shrugged, opening the door to the building but to their surprise, they found that it’s empty. There doesn’t seem to be a person or pokemon in sight.

Curious and a bit concerned, step into the Pokemon Club and proceed to look around. As Sally takes the left half of the building she notices four couches centered around a small low wood table, which has a small sign on the surface.

“Service is in the back. . .Please join us?” Sally reads out loud. “What does that mean?”

“Not sure.” Khris answers loudly. He’s standing by what seems to be a shrine or a tabletop covered in photos of various pokemon. He nudges a curtain aside to reveal a dimly lit path. Khris raises a brow. This is kinda sketchy. . . and despite that, he calls for Sally’s attention and leads the way.

The darkness of the path does not last long as at the end of the hallway was a pair of double doors that were opened wide that let the light of the following room filter in. The room looked very much like a church. Four rows of white painted pews with red velvet cushions to the left and right of the room. In the space between the pews was a long rolled out maroon carpet that led up to a simple wooden pulpit.

A series of tall stained glass windows decorated the room. On the left side of the wall were nine stained glass images depicting individuals that had likeness to a pokemon.

The first to be featured was the Genetic Pokemon, the legendary trio from Kanto, followed by the Diving Pokemon, Lugia, that served as the trio’s leader. The following set of four was the three legendary beasts of Johto and the Rainbow Pokemon. The right wall had three sets of three, the Titans of Hoenn, the Fairies of Sinnoh and the Swords of Kalos. Interestingly, only one of the Hoenn Titans featured an accurate depiction of a person while the remaining eight on this wall did not give any of the individuals any features, as their faces were blacked out, and their clothes had a non-specific gender look to them. Probably because those members of Soul have yet to surface. . .

The final glass window, the one behind the pulpit, was a huge glass window that depicted four beings in space; the Alpha Pokemon and a trio of Pokemon that represented life, death and order. It took Sally a moment to realize what -- or rather, who -- these windows depicted. The currently known individuals that could perform a Soul transformation. So, that would make this a place of dedication to Soul Chamber.

“Wow! This is so cool!” Sally beams. The people silent in their seats or praying look back to her. Some glare and some simply give her a blank expression, which makes her feel worse than the glaring. However, a man in a brown suit and with a cane in hand soothes them all with a gentle ‘now, now’ and they all return to what they were previously doing.

“Hello and welcome young ones.” The man greets, bowing his head. The two follow his example, bowing back to him. Sally’s eyes immediately darted around the room in wonder. “What brings the two of you here today?”

“Noth-”

“Oh nothing in particular!” Sally exclaims, overwhelmed with excitement. “I just wanted to see the club but I had no idea such a cool place existed!”

“Yes, there aren’t many shrines left to the descendants of the heroes of long ago. . .” The man sighs but a smile spreads across his face soon enough. “Thankfully, due to the public return of these heroes more places of worship are appearing and they will benefit these heroes.”

“Why would you say that?” Khris asks, raising a brow.

“The young heroes need support, of course. They may be strong but that strength isn’t endless. Music and enchantments can weaken them in battle.” Sally nodded her head, understandingly. She witnessed herself on the airing of the 25th Pokemon League two years ago. Beautiful kimono clad women danced in the stands and then one person lost power while the other gained enough to defeat the enemy.

“Do you think they’ll do anything about the weird weather lately?” Sally asks. “We were heading to Dewford when an earthquake shook our boat!” The man laughs, glancing at the stained glass images of the Titans.

“I’ve put this little place of worship together so they’ll always know we’re supporting them. A Titan has already awakened. . . She needs her Guardian and Protector however. . . but with these changes to Hoenn, I believe they’ll appear soon.”

“Wow. . .That’s so cool!” Sally beams. Khris watches his friend continue to gush as he stands off to the side. He really had no comment about all of this Soul stuff. It wasn’t his scene for certain. . . but, the change in nature and environments was certainly concerning. Besides the fact it would interfere with his research, it would be a troubling change for pokemon and human alike if it continued.

Still, what could even cause such changes to the region?

* * *

Mauville City was known as a bright and shiny city of fun, as the largest city in the heart of Hoenn it was a crossroad of nostalgic past and new technology.

At first glance, it looked like thick walls surrounded the city. However, that was not the case, in fact, the walls - or rather, the city was like a large building with a clearing in the middle. Four towers that supplied electricity and radio waves stood at the four compass points on the roof, which also had plenty of greenery for anyone who would choose to walk there.

The first floor was populated with many shops and places of interests, like the famous Rydle’s Cycles, the Mauville TV Station and the city’s Gym. The second floor of Mauville City was known under the name Mauville Hills as it was composed of a series of high-class apartment complexes. It’s the only residential area in the city and only accessible through a keycard elevator on the first floor. The stairs at the four corners of the city only served as a direct route to the rooftop.

The clearing of the city housed the PokeCenter and PokeMart and in the center was a scale model of Lumiose City’s Prism Tower, a symbol of collaboration between Hoenn and Kalos.

It would be no surprise that this city would be the location where the two friends would part ways. With a desert to the north of the city, Khris was eager to explore the new environment and see what pokemon it offered. Sally. . . was still on the fence about what she wanted to do. She wasn’t certain if she wanted to give up battling just yet but she knew she loved Contests for sure. . . but she was willing to challenge a few more gyms, at least until she defeated her father.

“Take care Sally.” Khris offers with a smile. She smiles back. Khris takes a moment to shift through a list in his head. “Remember to use that check book I gave you. And don't get in trouble without me. And-!” Sally makes a face at him as she puts her hands on her hips. He laughs a little, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry. I just want to make sure you’re safe.”

“I’ll be fine!” Sally laughs. Khris glances over his friend once more and a smile pulls at his lips. Ever since her first contest she abandoned her hat to have her hair tied up in a ponytail with her ribbon. It was different. She’s always let her wild and messy hair do as it wants but she was now visibly making an effort to keep it cool and under control. It was almost like she's found some control in her life.

She’s changed but Sally is still Sally. . . a bit wild and reckless but always smiling as she faces life. She’ll do what she can to make the best of things. She’s much better at that than he is.

“Yeah.” He laughs lightly. Khris reaches into his bag and pulls out a box. “Here, you might need this.” Sally looks curiously at the box before opening it up. To her surprise, inside was something similar to a pair of over ear headphones and attached to the band were two round lights, each attached to an antenna.

“It’s a dowsing machine.” Khris explains as Sally places the item on her head. “It makes sound and the lights will change color if you’re close to a hidden item.”

“Oh wow! That’s so neat!” Sally beams. She throws her arms around her friend’s friend as she tackles him with a hug. The air is forced out of Khris’s body and his glasses are jostled but he holds his ground. After fixing his glasses he returns Sally’s hug as tightly as he could.

Honestly, he doesn’t want to part ways either, but he promised to help his father.

“I’ll miss you.” He admits. He doesn’t miss the fact that Sally’s grip became tighter. He says nothing and simply savors the hug just a little longer. In time, they reluctantly pull apart. Khris takes a moment to straighten himself before quietly muttering one more goodbye and exits the northern entrance of the city. Sally weakly waves goodbye and lets her hand limply fall to her side.

Mirabelle suddenly bursts from her pokeball with a loud mewl to cheer her trainer up. Sally smiles weakly as she watches her pokemon rub against her leg affectionately. She kneels down to pet the pokemon on her head when the rest of her pokeballs suddenly burst open. Her smaller pokemon suddenly huddled around her, trying to cheer her up.

Tears prickle the corners of her eyes but Sally smiles, wrapping her arms around her pokemon. Kenshin is standing close by, his face seems to be in the usually annoyed expression. He raises a claw but Sally pays no heed to it, all too accustomed to him hitting her, but he surprises her by lightly placing his claw on her head and with a moment of hesitation, he affectionately ruffles her hair.

Sally beams. Right. She won’t be alone on this journey. She has friends with her after all!

* * *

“Uncle, I’m begging you!”

For some reason, that voice was familiar to Sally. . .

Befuddled, she looks around, wondering where that voice came from. Her investigation is cut short when Mirabelle suddenly leaps from her side and quickly scampers off. The kitten pokemon doesn’t make it far as she starts to rub against the leg of some boy. The boy’s eyes seemed to light up at the sight of the pokemon. Mirabelle began to affectionately nuzzle against the boy’s chest and hand once he had her in his arms.

Wait.

It wasn’t just some boy.

It was. . .

“Wally!” Sally exclaims rushing up to the boy. He jolts in surprise. He quickly spins around and once he spots Sally a wide smile spreads across his face.

He looked much better than before, he was still pale skinned but there was certainly more life to him. He was even wearing something that didn't look like pajamas, but a gray-blue sweater over his white collared shirt, light gray-green jeans and a pair of white sneakers. His eyes grow wide as he takes in the sight of Sally’s current pokemon team. He expected it would grow by the time they met again but he never thought it would be so big so soon. Then again. . .

“Sally! I saw you on the TV!” He suddenly blurts out. Sally blinks. “I-I mean, f-for contests! I saw you on stage and you looked really beautiful! Your pokemon were amazing!” Behind Sally, Kenshin crosses his arms, looking a bit proud of himself.

“Oh, gee.” Sally blushes, placing her face in a hand. “Thanks Wally. . .”

“Oh, um. . . Where’s Khris?” Wally asks, looking around for the boy in question. Sally glances away but she can't blame him for the question. When they first met they were together after all.

“We just parted ways. He’s doing research for his dad. . . so he could really only accompany me part way.”

“Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to upset you!” Wally exclaims, worry clear in his voice. Sally gives him an awkward smile. She assures him it’s fine and she swiftly changes the subject by asking him what he’s doing here at the gym. “I want to challenge the Gym to see how much stronger I’ve become! I’ve grown so much stronger with all of my pokemon!”

“All of your pokemon?” Sally blinks. Well, in an honest retrospective it’s probably not that weird that he’s gained more Pokemon since he's gotten healthier since they last met. 

“Yep!” Wally beams, his cheeks grow a rosy red hue and he looks so proud of himself. “My cousin gave me some pokemon as soon as I moved here and we’ve been playing and practicing together!” Wally places Mirabelle on the floor and she bounds over to Sally’s side. Wally pulls three pokeballs from his brown messenger bag and tosses them, a bit clumsily, allowing for his team to assemble before him; Ralts, Roselia and a Skitty of his own.

Instantly, the two Skittys got on the tips of their toes, curled their backs and hissed violently at each other. Sally kneeled down and lightly bopped her Skitty on the head. Mirabelle stopped hissing but Sally was pretty sure she was still glaring at that other Skitty.

“Please Sally!” Wally suddenly shouts. He claps his hands together and bows his head to her. “Have a battle with me!” Sally glances around. For a moment, her eyes meet with the man with Wally, she has no idea how long he has been there but she’s assuming it’s his uncle. He shrugs back.

“Well, alright.” Wally smiles in return. She finds it hard not to smile back at him. He’s just . . . so excited to battle her. Wally excitedly points to Sally, commanding Lawson, his Ralts, to step forward. Sally motions for Kenshin to step up but he gives her a look of detest.

“Just get up there.” Sally huffs. “I told you, only a few more battles until we dedicate all our time to contests! You need to battle to increase your move pool anyway!” That seems to win him over so Kenshin reluctantly complies. He stares down at the determined Ralts, face void of emotions as it’s claws glow a white hue. Kenshin brings down his claws, slashing the Ralts a couple of times before whapping the KO’d pokemon into Wally’s chest.

Wally winces but stays strong, determined to beat one of Sally’s pokemon. Kenshin drags himself to the side and proceeds to coolly lean against the wall, waiting for the battle to end.

_So cool._

His Skitty steps forward and Mirabelle makes her way to the battlefield. The two stare at each other for several moments before loudly hissing and snarling at each other. The two Kitten Pokemon slash at each other, tackling and -- rather cutely -- rolling around on the floor.

Sally is pretty sure Mirabelle is the pokemon on top at the moment and demands for a double slap. The Skitty follows through with the attack and slaps her little paws against the other pokemon’s face. Wally’s Skitty breaks away and runs back to her trainer’s side, her tail between her legs.

Wally is down to his Roselia. He keeps his confident look and gives his pokemon a thumbs up. Sally motions for Steven, her Beldum, to participate in the fight. The Iron Ball pokemon seems to beep with delight. He hovers onto the battlefield and circles the Roselia with interest only to receive a pin missile in the eye.

Despite not having a face to express it, Steven looked so betrayed. Wally stuttered out an apology but his Roselia looked anything but apologetic. It’s only then Sally realizes she has not spent enough time properly training this little guy.

She should fix that. . .

“Alright, Jordan! It’s your turn!” Jordan gallops onto the field. He crouches down and barrels forward, slamming his head and weight into the stomach of the Roselia. In retaliation, a wind tunnel of red and blue flower petals is blasted in the Iron Armor Pokemon’s face but given it was a grass attack, it didn’t bother Jordan that much. With another headbutt, he knocks out the Roselia.

“Wow. . . You really are strong, Sally.” Wally sighs, his shoulder slouching. Slowly, and rather reluctantly, he turns to the adult standing nearby. “Uncle. . . I’ll go back to Verdanturf. . .”

What

Oh god. Was this some battle to prove he can go on an adventure? At all? Aw hell. If she screwed that up for him she’d never forgive herself. . .

“Being a Trainer is tough, isn’t it?” Wally laughs, self deprecatingly. Oh god. Sally feels herself dying a little on the inside at the sadness in his voice. “It’s not enough just to battle with your Pokemon. I can’t become a true trainer like that.”

“You’re a great trainer!” Sally suddenly shouts. “You’ve grown up so much from that really weak and meek kid I met in my dad’s gym! Your pokemon really love you and you’re so determined! You just need to train and practice more before you’re ready for something like gym battles! I know you’ll do great!” Wally’s cheeks flush and his eyes shimmer with adoration.

“I. . . I'll definitely. . . I'm going to become stronger! Much, much stronger!” Wally smiles, looking a bit more confident. “I feel like I’ve learned so much from you just from one battle. . .”

Sally smiles back, believing that is a much more fitting on his face that a frown but, suddenly, Wally looked hesitant. “T-That’s why. . . If it’s all right. . . Could I. . . Could I call you . . .my r-riv-” The sickly boy’s face grew a darker shade of red as he struggled to get out the words but his embarrassment took over leading to him, shaking his head.

“Hahaha. . . Nevermind! It’s nothing important! Don't worry about it!” Flustered, Wally immediately makes a run for the Western exit of the city. On the other hand, his uncle chuckles at the sigh.

“So, you’re that trainer he met in Petalburg, right?” The man asks, marking this instance as the first time he’s spoken during the whole ordeal. Sally nods her head and the man smiles. “He’s always spoken so highly of you. If you have a chance, please visit us in Verdanturf. Wally would be so happy if you did.”

“Oh! If you’re inviting me over, I have no reason to say no!” Sally beams. “I’ll come visit as soon as I defeat the Gym Leader!” The man smiled once more, telling her they’ll be looking forward to meeting her and made his way to the west entrance, knowing Wally wouldn’t have left the city without him. Even if he was too embarrassed to ask Sally to be his rival.


End file.
